To stop a foreclosure in PA, you generally have five realistic moves: apply for HEMAP mortgage assistance within 33 days of your Act 91 Notice, enter your county’s foreclosure conciliation program after the lender files suit, negotiate a loan modification or other workout with your servicer, cure the default in full up to one hour before the sheriff sale, or file Chapter 13 bankruptcy to trigger an automatic stay. Because Pennsylvania is a judicial foreclosure state, the lender has to go through court, which gives you built-in time and procedural rights, but every one of these options comes with a hard deadline.
The Notices That Start Your Clock
Before a Pennsylvania lender can file a foreclosure complaint, it must send you two notices: an Act 6 Notice and an Act 91 Notice. The Act 6 Notice, required under the Loan Interest and Protection Law, has to arrive at least 30 days before the lender accelerates the loan or files suit, and it must state the default, the exact amount needed to cure it, and the deadline to pay.1New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Pennsylvania Code 41 PS 403 – Notice of Intention to Foreclose A notice missing required information can be challenged as legally deficient.
The Act 91 Notice is the one that unlocks your options. It warns you about the pending foreclosure and tells you about your right to apply for HEMAP. Until the Act 91 notice requirements are satisfied and either you’ve applied and received a decision or the response window has closed, the lender cannot accelerate, file a complaint, or take the property.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 35 PS Health and Safety 1680.402c
Federal rules add another cushion. Your servicer cannot make the first foreclosure filing until you are more than 120 days delinquent, and once you submit a complete loss mitigation application, the servicer is barred from “dual tracking” the foreclosure forward while reviewing it. A complete application received at least 37 days before a scheduled sale has to be evaluated for all available loss mitigation options.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Summary of the CFPB Foreclosure Avoidance Procedures
Apply for HEMAP Within 33 Days
The Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program is Pennsylvania’s signature foreclosure-prevention tool. It’s a loan, not a grant, but PHFA pays your lender directly to bring the mortgage current, including late fees and legal costs. Assistance is capped at $60,000 or 24 to 36 months of help from the date of delinquency, whichever comes first.4Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program / ACT 91
The deadline is unforgiving. You have 30 days from the date on the Act 91 Notice, plus three days for mailing, to meet with a PHFA-approved housing counseling agency, which works out to 33 days. Miss it and the lender can file the complaint immediately.5Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. HEMAP Fact Sheet Approved agencies are listed on the PHFA website.
Walk into that first meeting with everything the counselor will need: recent pay stubs, two years of tax returns, bank statements, a monthly expense list including utilities and insurance, the Act 91 Notice, and a written hardship statement explaining what caused the missed payments. The counselor helps you complete the HEMAP application and submits it to PHFA.
Once PHFA has your application, it has 60 days to decide, and the lender cannot pursue foreclosure during that window as long as you applied on time.5Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. HEMAP Fact Sheet PHFA is looking for whether you have a reasonable prospect of resuming full mortgage payments within 36 months.
Use Your County’s Conciliation Program
After the lender files its foreclosure complaint, many Pennsylvania counties run their own diversion or conciliation programs through the Court of Common Pleas. At least fourteen counties have active programs, including Philadelphia, Allegheny, Bucks, Delaware, Lehigh, and Lackawanna. The structure varies by county.
In most counties you opt in by filing a certification of participation with the prothonotary, usually with a housing counselor’s help. Philadelphia and some others use an opt-out system that automatically schedules a conciliation conference for owner-occupied properties. Once you’re enrolled, the court typically stays the foreclosure while negotiations are active.
At the conference, you sit down with the lender’s representative in front of a court-appointed mediator and try to work out a loan modification, repayment plan, or forbearance that avoids a sheriff sale. If the first session doesn’t produce a deal, additional conferences can be scheduled. Bring your financial documents and, if you can, a housing counselor or attorney.
Negotiate Directly With Your Servicer
Separate from HEMAP and conciliation, you can approach your servicer directly about a workout. Three options are standard:
- A loan modification changes the terms of your mortgage, by lowering the rate, extending the term, or adding missed payments to the back end of the loan. You can request one directly or through a housing counselor, and federal dual-tracking rules prevent the servicer from pushing the foreclosure forward while a complete application is under review.
- A short sale lets you sell the home for less than the mortgage balance with the lender’s approval. Negotiate for a written waiver of any deficiency before you close, because the gap between sale price and loan balance can otherwise come back as a claim against you.
- A deed in lieu of foreclosure transfers ownership to the lender voluntarily in exchange for release from the mortgage. The lender is not obligated to accept it, and it still damages your credit, but typically less than a completed foreclosure.
If any portion of the debt is forgiven in a short sale or deed in lieu, the lender will issue a Form 1099-C and the IRS generally treats the forgiven amount as taxable income.6Internal Revenue Service. Canceled Debt – Is It Taxable or Not? A tax professional can tell you whether the insolvency exclusion applies in your case.
Cure the Default Before the Sheriff Sale
Even deep in the process, Pennsylvania’s Right to Cure under 41 P.S. ยง 404 lets you stop a sheriff sale up until one hour before bidding starts. You don’t have to pay off the full mortgage. You reinstate by paying all past-due amounts you would have owed absent the default, reasonable attorney fees and foreclosure costs, and any late penalties your mortgage specifies.7Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 41 – Loan Interest and Protection Law
Call the lender’s attorney and ask for a formal reinstatement figure that itemizes every dollar. Payment has to be in cash, cashier’s check, or certified check. Once you cure, the statute puts you back in the same position as if the default never happened.7Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 41 – Loan Interest and Protection Law You can only use this right three times in a single calendar year.
One boundary to understand: Pennsylvania does not offer a statutory right of redemption after a mortgage foreclosure sheriff sale. Once bidding ends, you cannot buy the property back by paying the full balance. The cure is your last pre-sale shot.
File Chapter 13 to Trigger an Automatic Stay
When nothing else is working and a sale is imminent, filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts all collection actions, including the foreclosure lawsuit and the scheduled sheriff sale.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay You file in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern, Middle, or Western District of Pennsylvania, depending on your county. Notify the sheriff and the lender’s attorney immediately so a scheduled sale gets canceled.
Chapter 13 lets you cure your mortgage arrears through a repayment plan that runs three to five years while you keep making your regular monthly payment going forward. If your income is below the Pennsylvania median, the plan runs three years; if above, generally five, with a five-year cap.9United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics The catch: you must stay current on every post-filing mortgage payment. Fall behind and the lender can ask the court to lift the stay, putting the foreclosure right back on track.
Bankruptcy is not free. Filing fees, attorney costs, and a seven-year credit-report entry all follow. If the lender shows the court you filed primarily to delay rather than genuinely reorganize, it can move to lift the stay. A bankruptcy attorney can tell you whether Chapter 13 fits your overall finances.
If the Sheriff Sale Already Happened
You still have a narrow window. Under Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 3132, the court can set a sale aside “upon proper cause shown,” but only if the petition is filed before the sheriff’s deed is delivered.10Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. Pa.R.C.P. 3132 – Setting Aside Sale The deed is typically issued about 40 days after the schedule of distribution is filed, so the clock is short.
The most common ground is lack of proper notice, but courts have also considered sales where the homeowner was making payments under an agreement with the lender or where procedural errors tainted the process. Contact a foreclosure defense attorney immediately. Once the deed is recorded, your options shrink dramatically.
Watch Out for Foreclosure Rescue Scams
Homeowners in foreclosure are prime targets for operations that promise to “save your home” for an upfront fee. Under the federal Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule (Regulation O), a company cannot collect fees from you until your lender has made a written loan modification offer and you’ve accepted it. Any demand for payment before results is a federal violation.
Red flags: a company tells you to stop talking to your lender, asks you to sign over your deed, directs your mortgage payments to them instead of the servicer, or guarantees a specific outcome. PHFA-approved and HUD-approved housing counselors do this work for free or at very low cost. If someone is asking thousands upfront to “negotiate” with your lender, walk away and call PHFA or a legal aid organization instead.