This is what Chapter 13 was built for. If you're behind on a mortgage and the lender has started foreclosure, filing stops the sale and lets you cure the arrears over the life of the plan instead of in one lump sum.
The trade is that you resume the regular monthly payment starting the month after you file, and you keep making it. Chapter 13 buys you time on the back debt. It doesn't reduce the ongoing one.
The timing matters more than anything else
California is a non-judicial foreclosure state and the process moves. Notice of default, then three months, then a notice of trustee's sale with 20 days' notice, and then the sale happens on the courthouse steps or wherever the notice says.
A Chapter 13 filed before the sale stops it. A Chapter 13 filed the afternoon after the sale generally doesn't help, and I've had to tell people that on the phone. Don't wait to see whether the lender postpones. Postponements are common and they're also not promises.
Same-day filings happen
We've filed cases hours before a scheduled trustee's sale. It's doable, but it means gathering documents under pressure and it costs everyone sleep. Two weeks of lead time makes for a much better case.
How the cure works
Your arrears become a claim the lender files with the court. That number is the one that controls, not the number on the letters you've been getting. Review it. Servicers add fees, and inspection charges and attorney fees that shouldn't be there do occasionally show up. You have a window to object.
The arrears then get paid through the plan, in equal installments, across 36 or 60 months. If you're $42,000 behind and you're in a five-year plan, that's $700 a month of arrears cure alone.
What Chapter 13 will not do to your first mortgage
It won't reduce the principal on a loan secured by your primary residence. It won't change the interest rate. It won't strip the lien unless the house is worth less than the senior debt, which is a different tool and rarely applies to a first mortgage.
So if the payment itself is unaffordable, Chapter 13 is the wrong instrument. A loan modification, a sale, or a short sale may be the right one. Sometimes we file a Chapter 13 to create breathing room while a modification application is pending, and this district has a mortgage modification mediation process for exactly that.
“I've had clients who fought for five years to keep a house they couldn't afford on the day they bought it. Sometimes the honest advice is to sell into equity, discharge the rest, and land somewhere you can actually breathe.”
Naomi Reyes-AshfordOngoing payments during the case
You have to stay current. If you miss post-petition mortgage payments, the lender files a motion for relief from the automatic stay, and the usual result is an adequate protection order with strict terms. Miss again and the stay lifts, and the foreclosure resumes while your case is still open.
Questions we get asked
How far behind can I be and still qualify?
There's no cap in the statute. The practical cap is your budget. If the cure payment plus your regular mortgage exceeds what you earn, no plan will confirm.
Can I include property taxes I owe?
Delinquent property taxes are usually paid through the plan as a secured claim. Los Angeles County will file a claim for them.
What about a second mortgage I'm behind on?
Arrears on a second can be cured the same way, unless the second qualifies for lien stripping, in which case a different and much better outcome may be available.
Will the lender talk to me during the case?
On payment questions, yes, through your attorney or through the servicer's bankruptcy department. They can't call you to collect, and they know it.
What to do next
Call your servicer and request a written reinstatement quote good through a date at least 30 days out. If there's a sale date on the calendar, say so when you book the consultation and we'll move it up.