Filing a Chapter 13 stops a trustee's sale. It works the morning of the sale, and we have done it that day more than once.
After that, the plan lets you cure the arrears over three to five years while you resume the regular monthly payment. The lender does not get to refuse.
What the stay actually stops
Every step of a California nonjudicial foreclosure. The notice of default, the notice of sale, the auction itself. All of it freezes on filing.
Timing is not flexible here. If the sale completes before the petition is filed, even by an hour, the house is generally gone. Call early rather than tidy.
If a sale date is set, say so when you call
Those cases go to the front of the queue. We can file an emergency petition with a skeleton set of documents and complete the schedules afterward.
Curing the arrears
Say you are $47,000 behind. A five-year plan spreads that across sixty months, so roughly $780 a month toward the arrears, on top of your regular mortgage payment which you resume separately.
That is a real number and for some households it is not affordable. We would rather run it with you honestly in the first meeting than file a plan that collapses in month eight.
The second mortgage question
If your home is worth less than the balance on the first mortgage, a Chapter 13 can strip the second entirely. It becomes unsecured, gets treated like credit card debt, and comes off the title when the plan completes.
Values in most of Los Angeles County have made this rarer than it was a decade ago. It is still worth checking, because when it works the number is large.
“A loan modification and a Chapter 13 are not competitors. I have had clients run both at once, using the plan to hold the sale off while the servicer took eleven months to answer a complete application.”
Naomi Reyes-AshfordQuestions we get asked
Can I file the day of the sale?
Yes, if the sale has not already been conducted. Call the moment you know, not the night before.
What if I've filed before?
Repeat filings within a year can limit the stay to 30 days, or eliminate it, unless we move quickly to extend it. Tell us about any prior case in the first conversation.
Will I keep my second mortgage payment?
If the second is stripped, no. If it is not, yes, you resume it and cure any arrears through the plan.
Do I have to keep the house?
No. Some clients use a Chapter 13 to stay in place for a year while they arrange a move, then let it go. That is a legitimate strategy.
Start here
Find your most recent mortgage statement and any notice of default or notice of sale. Those two documents tell us how much time you have.