What about Foreclosure and can a Chapter 13 save my home from foreclosure? It is a frightening thing to risk losing your home due to financial circumstances beyond your control. An experienced foreclosure attorney may offer you counsel in taking the necessary positive action to save your home from foreclosure. A question that one needs to ask is whether or not there is any equity in the property exists, and whether or not there is too much of a sentimental attachment to the property. Foreclosures in Pennsylvania are accomplished through a legal process undertaken by a bank, mortgage company or lender to terminate and end homeowners' interest in their homes after they have fallen behind on mortgage payments. Often, there are ways to stop or at least slow down foreclosure if acting soon enough. However, when your home's sheriff's sale is happening tomorrow, it may be too late! Delay is your enemy! In other situations, especially when served the complaint or served a Motion for Summary Judgment, then there can be legal protections short of bankruptcy that one may want to consider. These include utilizing legal responses against the mortgagee (for example a bank), the loan holder. Also, they include serious negotiation, since the mortgagee does not really want the real estate back. Mortgage holders are in the business of lending money. They are not real estate companies. This can work to your advantage, if properly represented. One special feature of chapter 13 is its ability to save home ownership when one falls behind in their mortgage payments and therefore defaults on the mortgage. In other words, Chapter 13 facilitates the addressing of mortgage payment arrearages, so that the Debtor can successfully reinstate a mortgage to its pre-default status. This is done through payment of a Chapter 13 "plan. Usually in a Chapter 13, the Debtor makes payments to a trustee over a 36 - 60 month period, which sum includes sufficient funds to reinstate the loan to current status. During this time period, the mortgage company cannot sell your home or in any way continue with the foreclosure action, if one is pending. If a foreclosure action is not commenced when you file, the mortgage company cannot begin one after you file or while the case is pending. For example, if a homeowner were behind $12,000.00 in mortgage payments, in a 60-month plan, you would pay $200.00 per month in order to bring the mortgage current.