- Two clocks run after a sale: one on the house, one on the money
- Bona fide tenants get at least 90 days written notice under federal law
- No cost from your pocket; any fee is taken from the surplus after recovery
- Your state sets the response deadlines, and some are counted in court days
The steps at a glance
Read every paper that was served
We put a date on each notice and each court document, sort out which deadline is real and which has already slipped past, and tell you what the paper is actually demanding. Nothing else can be planned until that sits on one page.
Answer the court on time
A response date gone by usually decides the case with no hearing at all. Where your state requires a licensed attorney to prepare or file court papers, a licensed attorney handles it.
Ask for more time, the way your court expects
Some courts grant a stay, some accept a hardship request, and some judges will not budge unless the other side agrees. We work out which of those is open to you before you ask.
Turn a forced move-out into a negotiated one
A buyer who can pin the keys to a known date has a reason to pay for that certainty. We put the amount, the date, the condition of the property and the dismissal of any case into writing.
Find out what the sale actually raised
We pull the recorded deed, the case file or the county's tax-sale figures and set the winning bid against the debt, the costs and every lien ranked behind the foreclosed loan.
Prove who you are and how you held title
Authorizations, checks on identity and ownership, affidavits and notarizing. Where the owner has died we track down and confirm any will or trust, and make a probate filing when the estate calls for one.
Lodge the claim and stay on it
The claim goes to the trustee, the county or the court with the proof clipped to it, and we keep pressing until it is answered rather than waiting on a letter that may never arrive.
Get the money released
When funds are paid out we account for every cost we fronted, and the completion fee is drawn from the surplus at that point and not one day before.
Most people reach us in the same week: a paper taped to the door, a stranger at the gate, a letter about a sale that already went through. Two separate matters are in motion by then, decided by different people keeping different calendars. Our specialists take them in the order the calendar forces, not the order they feel urgent. This page sets out that order.
Two clocks start on the day of the sale
| The house | The money | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is across from you | The buyer at the auction | The trustee, court clerk or county |
| What sets it going | A written notice, then court papers | Word that a surplus exists, or nothing at all |
| How the time is counted | Days, sometimes court days | Weeks or months, fixed by your state |
| How it ends | An agreed date, or a court order | A payment to you, or the money sliding into a state fund |
| Our part | Read the papers, meet the deadline, buy time, negotiate the exit | Trace what the sale raised, prove who you are, lodge the claim |
Families deal with the left-hand column because somebody is knocking. The right-hand column gets left for later, and that is exactly where the money is.
The house: papers first, then time, then the exit
Eviction Defense
The work opens with reading. A notice to quit is not a court case; a summons and complaint are. We date everything, split a real deadline from mere pressure, and tell you what the document is asking. In almost every state the buyer has to win a court case before anyone is put out, and a sheriff or marshal carries out the order. If you rented rather than owned, federal law hands a bona fide tenant at least 90 days of written notice and lets a bona fide lease run to its close unless the buyer means to live there. The eviction defense page carries the sequence.
Unlawful Detainer Filings
The eviction lawsuit goes by unlawful detainer in many states, and by forcible entry and detainer, summary ejectment or a dispossessory action in others. The label changes nothing that counts: a written response, filed by the date on the summons, in the court named on it. Our specialists build that response with you and see it filed on time. Where your state requires a licensed attorney to prepare or file court papers, a licensed attorney handles it.
Time Extensions
Almost everyone reaches for the same thing first, which is more weeks. Courts grant it several ways, and which one is open depends on your state and the judge: a stay of the order, a hardship application, a continuance of the hearing, or a date the other side will put in writing. We find out which door exists before you knock, and gather what helps: a school term, a medical appointment, a lease that starts on a fixed day. See time extensions for what carries weight and what does not.
Cash for Keys
A buyer holding a house with someone still inside is paying for time and uncertainty, which is why a payment for a clean, dated handover often lands on the table. Our advocates run that conversation and put the terms in writing: the sum, the date, who takes what, the condition the property is left in, the dismissal of any case filed. We also read the release language, because a move-out agreement should not quietly surrender a claim to the sale money. Cash for Keys lays out what to negotiate.
The money: did the sale leave anything, and who is holding it
While the house side runs, a second line of work opens that most people never start on their own. If the bid climbed past the debt, the costs and the liens ranked behind the foreclosed loan, there is a surplus, and it is owed to the former owner or that owner’s heirs. Different offices label it excess proceeds, overage or an overbid, by which one is sitting on it.
We pull the recorded deed, the court docket where a judge ran the foreclosure, or the county’s published tax-sale figures, and set the bid next to what was owed. We work out who holds the money: a trustee when the sale ran outside the courts, the court registry after a judicial sale, the treasurer or tax collector after a tax sale, or a state unclaimed-property office once it has sat long enough. Then we build the claim: authorizations, checks on identity and ownership, affidavits, notarizing, the paperwork the office insists on, and court filings where a claim goes before a judge. Where the owner has died, we track down and confirm any will or trust and make a probate filing when the estate needs one.
This is the line of work where a claim most often stalls: money that never gets traced, a form bounced on a technicality, heirs and rival liens nobody untangled. What we add is knowing where to look, getting the paperwork accepted the first time, handling heirs, probate and competing liens, carrying the costs, and holding the deadline while you move. Surplus funds after foreclosure covers the money side on its own.
Deadline: The surplus notice usually goes to the property that was just sold, and your state fixes how long you have after it is sent. Some of those windows are only weeks. Check Your Deadlines before one closes without a sound.
What we need from you
- Every paper you were served or found on the door, with the date each turned up
- The address of the property and the name of whoever ran the sale
- Proof of who you are, and the deed or other paper showing how you held title
- If the owner has died, the death certificate and the names of the family
Your first hour on this
- Photograph every notice, with the date on it and the date it reached you
- Write your new mailing address to the office named on the sale notice, and lodge a forwarding order
- Do not agree to a move-out date over the phone before it is in writing
- Sign no deed, no assignment and no sweeping power of attorney, whatever deadline they wave at you
- Send us the papers and say whether you are still in the house; possession and money take different first steps
What the work costs you
Nothing leaves your own pocket. On the surplus claim, the organization fronts the court charges, the certified copies and the notary work, and is repaid through a completion fee drawn from the surplus after it is collected, set in writing before the work begins and owed only if money comes in. The possession work runs on the same footing this round: we handle the court filings, write the responses, and carry the back-and-forth that can keep you in the home longer, and any fee for that is drawn from the same surplus once it lands. Where your state requires a licensed attorney for a court or probate filing, a licensed attorney handles it, and you still pay nothing out of pocket. In California, claims by a former owner-occupant of a home sold at a trustee’s sale are handled by a licensed California attorney, because California law reserves that work for the owner’s attorney (Cal. Civ. Code §2945.4). We work as post foreclosure specialists and advocates inside a private, nationwide organization, and no public office charges to confirm whether a surplus exists.
Questions about how our specialists help
Nobody honest says yes to that. What can be done is concrete: a response filed on time, a request for more time put the way your court wants it, and a negotiated move-out date that beats the one on the notice. Where your state requires a licensed attorney to prepare or file court papers, a licensed attorney handles it.
Often the part worth the most. The money question outlives the possession fight, and many former owners never learn the auction brought in more than they owed, because the notice went to the house they had already vacated.
The day the first paper lands beats the week after. Response deadlines in eviction cases are short and some states count them in court days, and the claim period on surplus funds starts when a notice is sent, not when it is read.
Then there is nothing to recover and no completion fee, and the search does not land on your bill. We tell you what the figures were so you can see how we reached that.