How to Stop a Sheriff Sale in PA: Act 6, HEMAP, and Bankruptcy

To stop a sheriff sale in PA, you generally have five routes: pay the arrears to reinstate your loan under Act 6, apply for state mortgage assistance through HEMAP, submit a loss mitigation application to your servicer, file for bankruptcy to trigger an automatic stay, or ask a judge to halt the sale because the lender skipped a required step. Which one fits depends on how much cash you can raise, how much time is left on the clock, and why you fell behind. Several of these can run in parallel.

Act fast. Some protections only apply if you file paperwork more than a month before the auction. Others stay available right up to the hour of the sale.

Cure the Default Under Act 6

This is the most direct option and the one that stays open the longest. Pennsylvania’s Act 6 lets you cure your mortgage default and stop the sheriff sale at any point up to one hour before bidding begins. You can use this right up to three times in a calendar year.¹

To cure, you pay what you would have owed if you had never fallen behind: all missed monthly payments, reasonable late fees, and the lender’s actual foreclosure costs to that point. You do not pay off the full loan balance. Payment has to be in cash, cashier’s check, or certified check. Once you cure, the law treats you as if the default never happened.¹

The practical step is getting the exact number from your servicer in writing. Ask specifically for a reinstatement figure, itemized. That is different from a payoff amount. Reinstatement is only what you need to bring the loan current; a payoff is the entire remaining balance.² Request the reinstatement number, because that is the one that stops the sale.

Apply for HEMAP

Pennsylvania’s Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program is a state-funded loan program for homeowners who fell behind because of circumstances outside their control, such as job loss or a medical crisis. It is run by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.³

Eligibility starts when your lender sends you an Act 91 notice. From the date of that notice, you have 33 days (30 days plus 3 for mailing) to schedule a face-to-face meeting with a HUD-approved housing counseling agency. That meeting starts the formal application.³ Miss that window and you lose the automatic foreclosure hold, so schedule the appointment immediately.

Once PHFA has your completed application, the agency has 60 days to decide, and your lender cannot start or continue foreclosure during that review.⁴ You will need to document your hardship and show you can resume full mortgage payments once the crisis passes. If approved, HEMAP issues a loan that brings your mortgage current and stops the sale.

Request Loss Mitigation From Your Servicer

If you cannot raise the full reinstatement amount, a loss mitigation application is another path. Loss mitigation covers the workout options a servicer can offer: loan modifications that lower your payment, forbearance agreements that pause payments, and repayment plans that spread the arrears over several months.⁵

Federal rules under RESPA require your servicer to work with you in good faith on a complete application. Once you submit a complete application, the servicer cannot move forward with the sale while it reviews your file.⁶ If you are approved for a trial modification, the sale cannot proceed as long as you make trial payments on time.⁵

Timing is the catch. To get the full protections, submit a complete application more than 37 days before the scheduled sale. If you are closer to the date than that, file anyway, and notify both your servicer and the sheriff. The protections are strongest when you apply early.

File for Bankruptcy

Filing a bankruptcy petition triggers an automatic stay that immediately stops nearly all collection activity against you, including a scheduled sheriff sale. The stay takes effect the moment the petition is filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, even hours before the auction.⁷

The chapter you file under decides what happens next.

Chapter 7 is liquidation. The automatic stay pauses the sale, but your lender can ask the court to lift the stay and proceed with foreclosure relatively quickly. Chapter 7 buys time; it does not give you a mechanism to catch up on missed payments and keep the house long-term.

Chapter 13 is reorganization. You propose a three-to-five-year repayment plan that folds in your mortgage arrears while you keep making regular monthly payments going forward. The Bankruptcy Code specifically allows a Chapter 13 plan to cure a mortgage default and maintain payments on your home loan.⁸ If you can afford the plan payments, Chapter 13 is the option built to save the home.

Filing requires detailed financial schedules, a creditor list, and completion of an approved credit counseling course before you file. The Chapter 13 filing fee is $313, and the court can allow installment payments.

Repeat Filers Lose the Stay

If you had a bankruptcy case dismissed within the past year and file again, the automatic stay expires after 30 days unless you convince the court the new filing is in good faith. If you had two or more cases dismissed within the prior year, the stay does not take effect at all without a court order. The law presumes the refile was not in good faith, and you have to overcome that presumption with clear and convincing evidence.⁷ Using serial filings to stall foreclosure can leave you with no stay protection when you need it most.

Challenge the Sale in Court

If your lender skipped a required step, you can ask a judge to halt or vacate the sale by filing a petition in the Court of Common Pleas under Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 3121. The court can stay the sale based on a defect in the writ, the levy, or the service of process, or on any other legal or equitable ground.⁹

Common grounds include:

You never received the Act 6 notice, the Act 91 notice, or the required 30-day written notice of the sheriff sale.
The writ or the property description is wrong, or the judgment amount is incorrect.
The debt was already paid before the sale was scheduled.
The sheriff failed to mail a copy of the writ to you at your last known address after the levy.¹⁰

Your petition needs a clear factual statement, the legal basis for the request, and a proposed order. If you are claiming notices never reached you, attach an affidavit. The court can schedule an emergency hearing, and if the judge agrees the lender failed to follow procedure, the sale will be stayed until the errors are fixed.

Check Whether Your County Has a Diversion Program

Several Pennsylvania counties run court-supervised programs that require lenders and homeowners to sit down and negotiate before the case moves to judgment. Philadelphia’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program is the most established. A conciliation conference is scheduled roughly 60 days after the lender files the foreclosure complaint. If you attend, the court can schedule additional conferences and the case is diverted from the normal foreclosure track. Skip the conference and the case returns to the ordinary path toward judgment.

Allegheny and Delaware counties have adopted similar programs. Call your county’s Court of Common Pleas or a local HUD-approved housing counseling agency to find out whether a diversion program exists where you live. These programs are free and can create time and structure for negotiating with your lender.

Deliver the Paperwork to the Sheriff Yourself

Winning a stay in court or filing bankruptcy does not automatically pull your property off the auction list. You have to physically bring the documentation to the sheriff’s civil division. Take a time-stamped copy of the bankruptcy petition, the court order granting the stay, or proof of your pending HEMAP application. Many sheriff’s offices want the paperwork several days in advance, though emergency filings are generally accepted up to the morning of the sale.

After you deliver the documents, confirm the property has been removed from the list. Check the sheriff’s public website or call the office. Get confirmation, written or verbal, that the sale is marked stayed or postponed. An accidental sale because the sheriff was never told creates a serious legal mess to undo.

If the Sale Goes Through

If the auction happens and the property sells for less than you owe, your lender can pursue a deficiency judgment for the balance. Pennsylvania law requires the lender to petition the court to set the property’s fair market value before collecting. If the fair market value is higher than the sale price, the deficiency is calculated from fair market value rather than sale price, which can shrink or wipe out what you owe.¹¹ If the lender fails to name you in the deficiency petition or fails to serve you properly, you are discharged from personal liability on the debt.

Canceled mortgage debt is generally taxable income. Your lender will report any forgiven amount of $600 or more on a Form 1099-C. You may be able to exclude the canceled debt from income if you were insolvent at the time, meaning your total debts exceeded the fair market value of your total assets. IRS Publication 4681 has the worksheet.¹²

Watch Out for Rescue Scams

Homeowners facing a sheriff sale are targets for companies that promise to save the house for an upfront fee. Federal law makes it illegal for any mortgage assistance relief service to charge you before delivering a written offer of relief from your lender that you accept. An upfront-fee demand violates the FTC’s Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule.¹³

Other warning signs: someone who tells you to stop communicating with your lender, anyone who guarantees a loan modification, or anyone claiming a government affiliation they cannot document. HUD-approved housing counselors provide their services at no cost. For a list of approved counseling agencies in Pennsylvania, contact PHFA directly.³

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 41 P.S. Interest 404
2
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Payoff Amount and Is It the Same as My Current Balance?
3
Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program / ACT 91
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 35 P.S. 1680.403c – Notice Requirements
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Understanding Terms in Your Mortgage Assistance Letter
6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation X 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 362 – Automatic Stay
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 1322 – Contents of Plan
9
Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. 231 Pa. Code Rule 3121 – Stay of Execution; Setting Aside Execution
10
Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. 231 Pa. Code Rule 3108 – Service of Writ, Notice of Execution
11
Pennsylvania General Assembly. 42 Pa.C.S. Chapter 81 – Provisions Relating to Execution
12
Internal Revenue Service. Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions, and Abandonments
13
Federal Trade Commission. Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule: A Compliance Guide for Business