GET HELP · IF YOU ARE FACING FORECLOSURE
If foreclosure is moving, start here.
You are not alone. This page is for veterans and caregivers who are behind, in foreclosure, or already displaced. It is calm, practical, and free. Take it one step at a time, preserve your documents, reach vetted help, and ask your servicer the right questions.
If you are facing this, the four answers, fast.
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What’s happening
After COVID, many veterans were told to pause mortgage payments under a federal program, then the program that let them catch up was taken away. VA launched a replacement, the Partial Claim, in June 2026, but you can only get it once your own servicer has put it in place. VFC has not found a public list of which servicers have. Ask yours, in writing.
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What it means for you
This is not your fault and you are not alone: a government program changed under you. Free specialists handle exactly this situation.
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What to do today
Do not sign anything, gather your paperwork, and call a specialist before any sale date.
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Where to get help
Start with the vetted help below, by your stage. If you have a sale date or eviction notice, act today.
THE FIRST 72 HOURS · THE SHORT CHECKLIST
Six steps, in order
If you do nothing else today, do these.
Each is free, and each links to the national resource that handles it. Work down the list. You do not have to do it all at once.
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Call for help today
Use the stage that matches you: sale date or eviction notice → legal aid today; home not sold and trying to keep it → HUD/state foreclosure specialist; housing instability or displacement → SSVF; local food, utilities, rent, or resource discovery → 211. Every vetted number is in Where to turn below.
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Do not sign anything
Especially a “cash for keys” offer: it asks you to give up the home, and sometimes your legal claims, for a payment. Talk to legal aid or a housing counselor before you sign anything, no matter how short the deadline sounds.
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Gather your documents
Save every letter, email, and voicemail, and write down every call: date, name, what was said. The full list is in gather these documents below.
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Get free legal + counseling
A HUD-approved housing counselor is the strongest first call for a home you are trying to keep; an attorney finder and state legal aid come next. All three, with their numbers, are in Where to turn below.
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File to build the record
CFPB, VA OIG, your State Attorney General, and Congress (202-224-3121). Every filing is evidence for the whole cohort.
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You are not alone
Other families have been exactly here and triage new arrivals every week, find the family support group in Where to turn, Stage 3.
A one-page version to print and keep: The First 72 Hours.
IF YOU HAVE A SALE DATE OR AN EVICTION NOTICE
If a sale is scheduled, timing matters
Do this first, if you have a sale date or eviction notice.
Do not sign anything, including a “cash for keys” offer, before you speak to a legal-aid attorney. A pending sale can sometimes be paused, but timing matters. Call a legal line below today.
A sale date is not a move-out date. No one can remove you without a court order. In Washington, if a sale happens, the new owner has to file a separate eviction case, called an unlawful detainer or UD. How removal works where you live depends on your state and your case.
Which kind of state are you in
One question changes your timeline more than any other. Does a court have to approve the sale where you live? Find your state’s answer before you rely on any date, including the ones on this page. The legal-aid line below will know it.
NO COURT HEARING
Non-judicial
Deed-of-trust states, like Washington: the trustee can sell without a court hearing. Timelines are short, act fast.
A trustee is a third party named in your loan papers. Loans like this are usually a deed of trust, and the sale is called a trustee sale. Start today.
COURT HEARING REQUIRED
Judicial
Court-ordered: you are served and can respond in court. Find out which type your state uses first.
The lender files a lawsuit and you are served with court papers. You get a place to answer, and usually more time. Answer by the date printed on the papers. Missing that date can end the case without you.
THE SAME IN EVERY STATE
Two things do not change wherever you live. No one can remove you without a court order, and the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act applies nationally. Almost everything else on this page is state law: how foreclosure runs, how long you have to answer an eviction, whether there is a redemption period, and which court hears it. Where we show a Washington rule, it is marked as an example. Check the same rule in your own state before you rely on a date.
Foreclosure runs one of two ways. Find out which your state uses first. Never sign a Cash for Keys agreement first. See Step 2.
STATE EXAMPLE, WASHINGTON
Washington’s Foreclosure Fairness Program provides mediation after a Notice of Default, but only if a housing counselor or attorney refers the case at least 90 days before the sale date (or 25 days before the new sale date, if a court stopped the sale and a new notice was recorded).
IDENTIFY THE DOCUMENT
Six envelopes, and what each one actually means
Most of what arrives is not a deadline. Two of these are. Find the one you received below.
| What arrived | What it means | How fast |
|---|---|---|
| VRM “Notice to Occupants” | The property manager identifying itself. Informal. It is not a legal notice to vacate and it does not start a clock. | Informational |
| PTFA notice | Asks whether you are a tenant or subtenant. A standard checklist step before an eviction is filed. It does not apply to a former owner. Save it. Do not send lease documents you do not have. | Informational |
| Cash for keys offer | A voluntary agreement: money in exchange for leaving and signing a release. It has a deadline and the release is usually broad. Read what the release gives up before the deadline, and do not sign under pressure. | Time-limited |
| Post-sale notice citing a statute | A formal notice after the sale, naming your state’s statute and stating a possession date. This is the step that comes before an eviction is filed. | Act now |
| Eviction filed in court | Court papers, often called an unlawful detainer or a summons and complaint. The lawsuit has been filed and you are the defendant. Your state sets how long you have to respond, and in some states it is very short. Missing it is how most people lose by default rather than on the merits. | Emergency |
| Writ of restitution or possession | The court has ordered the eviction and the sheriff will enforce it. Call a lawyer today. | Emergency |
CHANGES BY STATE
Four questions decide your timeline, and all four are state law
Find your state’s answer to each before relying on any date you read anywhere, including here.
- Is your state judicial or non-judicial? A judicial foreclosure runs through a court, takes longer, and gives you a place to be heard. A non-judicial one happens outside court.
- How much notice comes before the sale? This ranges from a few weeks to several months.
- Can you buy the home back after the sale? Some states give a redemption period, often with the right to stay during it. Many give none.
- How long do you have to answer an eviction once it is filed? This is the shortest and most dangerous clock in the process.
Two worked examples, from states where we have cohort families and can document the answer. They are examples, not the rule.
Washington. Non-judicial. The purchaser is entitled to possession on the twentieth day after the sale, and once an eviction is filed, you must answer by the date on the summons, which can be as few as 7 days after you are served. There is no redemption period. A tenant in a foreclosed property there gets sixty days’ written notice, and that section says in terms that it does not apply if the borrower stays on the property. Washington’s appointed-counsel statute is written for an indigent tenant and is subject to available funding, so a former owner should not count on it.
Wyoming. A three-month statutory redemption period, with the right to remain in the home during it.
Those two are worth sitting next to each other. The state with far stronger tenant protection gives a foreclosed homeowner far less time. Whatever you assume your state does, check it.
If you are outside these two states, ask a local legal-aid line which statute and which clock apply to you. Do not carry a number from this page into another state.
TRUE EVERYWHERE
Three things that do not change when you cross a state line
Most families have never been told any of this.
- You cannot be removed from a home without a court order. Not by a servicer, not by a property manager, not by a letter. A foreclosure sale does not mean you have to be out that day. Every state puts some process between the sale and removal. What varies is how much.
- If you are a tenant in a foreclosed property, federal law protects you. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act requires 90 days’ written notice before eviction, and a bona fide lease generally runs to the end of its term unless the buyer will live there, in which case the same 90 days applies. It was permanently restored on 23 June 2018 with no expiration date. This is the one protection that does not change at a state line. It protects tenants, not former owners.
- Losing the house does not permanently end your VA loan entitlement and does not make you ineligible for help. Those are separate questions from whether the house is gone.
CALL · ASK · WRITE IT DOWN
What to ask, and what to write down
Get answers in writing. For every call, write the date, who you spoke with, and what they said.
ASK YOUR SERVICER
- “Have you implemented the VA Partial Claim? What is your ETA?”
- Whether its VA Loss Mitigation Waterfall and Partial Claim are fully implemented, for your loan.
- “Is this rate at or below VA’s posted maximum for modifications this week (the Freddie Mac weekly rate plus 0.5%)? Can you offer a lower rate?”
- “Are you pursuing foreclosure at the same time (dual-tracking)?”
Get answers in writing.
ASK EVERY HELP LINE
- “Do you help homeowners after the foreclosure sale has already happened?” If they say no, ask them to name a program that does.
- Any legal-aid line: “Do you handle mortgage foreclosure?” before you rely on it.
- Ask which team you are being sent to, and write down the answer.
- If an office turns you down: a referral to a private RESPA or mortgage-servicing attorney in your state, and whether they know of anyone taking these cases on a fee-shifting basis.
WRITE DOWN EVERY CALL
- The date
- Who you spoke with
- What they said
- Save every letter, email, and voicemail.
Your records may be the only running account of what happened, they matter.
IF YOU GOT A LETTER LIKE THIS
“Chose not to accept”? “Not resolved”? Here’s what those lines leave out
If a VA or servicer letter uses one of these lines, you are not alone. It is a documented pattern. See the plain-language rebuttal and exactly what to ask for, in writing.
SAVE THIS EVIDENCE · BEFORE YOU CALL ANYONE
Gather these documents
Collect every letter, offer and notice about your loan, and keep a written log of every phone call.
- Your COVID forbearance approval letter (check whether a lump-sum balloon was disclosed)
- Every loan modification offer, with its interest rate and new payment
- All servicer letters, emails, and denial notices
- A written log of every phone call: date, who you spoke with, what they said
- Your original monthly payment amount and interest rate
- Any foreclosure or sale-date notice, and any eviction paperwork
Want to add your experience to the record, safely and on your own terms? See how to share your story safely. It is entirely optional, and nothing is published without your consent.
Build your case. What to keep, where to file a complaint, and the legal grounds a lawyer will ask about. The months after this week.
VETTED HELP, BY WHAT YOU NEED
Where to turn
Find the group that matches your situation right now.
Everything here is vetted and free, and national unless marked. State and local lines are marked with their state; we add them as families confirm them.
BEFORE YOU CALL
The people answering these phones can be wrong, and that cost many of our families weeks they did not have. Intake coordinators and paralegals told us the wrong thing more than once. They were not lying. The rules are split across programs with similar names and different funding, and the person on the phone often does not know where the line falls. So ask them straight: "Do you help homeowners after the foreclosure sale has already happened?" Write down who you spoke to and the date. If they say no, ask them to name a program that does. Call anyway. The answer can be different depending on where you live and when you call, and one call costs you less than not knowing.
Outside Washington. Most states have a foreclosure help line, an eviction help line for renters, and a general legal aid line. Calling 211 is the fastest way to find yours. Ask each one the same question above.
Stage 1
Still in your home, in foreclosure, not sold yet
The house has not been sold. The priority is pausing the sale and getting a workout on the record.
Stage 2
Post-foreclosure, facing eviction
The sale has happened and you may have received notices. The priority is eviction defense, your timeline, and not signing away rights.
Stage 3
Rebuilding, displaced or homeless
You have left the home. The priority is safe housing now, income and credit repair, and staying connected to people who have done this.
To try to stop a sale: foreclosure counseling and mediation
PROJECT ANALYSIS
For a home you still own and are trying to keep, your strongest first call is a specialist: a HUD-approved housing counselor (1-800-569-4287) or your state’s foreclosure-prevention / mediation program. These counselors are free and specialize in mortgage and VA foreclosure. Dial 211 and ask for your state foreclosure-prevention center.
This kind of help stops on the day your home is sold.
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HUD-approved housing counseling
Stage 1 · national
Free counseling on your options. Ask them to point you to legal aid too. This is help to try to stop a sale, so it is for people whose home has not been sold yet. If your home has already been sold, this line is not built for you.
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Your state’s foreclosure-prevention center
Stage 1 · every state
Dial 211
Ask for your state foreclosure-prevention center.
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Washington Homeownership Hotline
Stage 1 · Washington
Before your home is sold. Free help to try to stop the foreclosure on the home you live in.
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CFPB Help for Homeowners
Stage 1 · guide
Federal plain-language guide to foreclosure options and your rights.
Legal help
KEY FINDING · READ THIS BEFORE YOU CALL “LEGAL AID”
PROJECT ANALYSIS
General legal-aid lines are often grant-funded for specific problems. In some states that means landlord/tenant eviction only, not mortgage foreclosure (this is the case in Washington), and a referral to a private attorney may not work out. Ask any legal-aid line directly: “Do you handle mortgage foreclosure?” before you rely on it.
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State / county legal aid
Stages 1 and 2 · every state
Dial 211
LawHelp.orgFree civil legal aid near you, grant-limited, so read the caveat above before you rely on it. National: Call 211, connects to local legal aid in every state.
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NACA attorney finder
Stage 1 · national
Find a consumer or foreclosure attorney in your state through the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
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CLEAR legal aid
Stages 1 and 2 · Washington
Free legal aid, to ask where to go. In eastern Washington, CLEAR sends callers to the Northwest Justice Project. One service can have more than one name and more than one phone number. Ask which team you are being sent to, and write down the answer. Outside WA, dial 211 and ask for your state’s foreclosure legal-aid line.
After a sale: eviction defense
Foreclosure counseling stops the day your home is sold, and eviction lines are mostly for renters. After a sale, most families fall between the two.
After your home is sold, there is almost nothing. We would rather tell you that than waste your time. Here is why. There is no federal program that helps a family after a foreclosure sale. Not one. Some states add their own programs, but most of those only cover renters being evicted by a landlord. They usually do not cover a family being put out after their own home was sold. So free foreclosure help ends at the sale, eviction help begins with renters, and a family who lost a home to foreclosure is in neither group.
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Local legal aid
Stage 2 · every state
Dial 211
Connects you to local eviction-defense help, grant-limited, so read the caveat above before you rely on it. Outside WA, ask 211 for your county’s eviction-defense line.
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Before “cash for keys”
Stage 2
Talk to legal aid first
Never sign first. See Step 2.
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Eviction Defense Screening Line
Renters only · Washington
1-855-657-8387
statewideIf you rent your home and your landlord is evicting you. This one is for renters. It is not for people who owned their home. (Confirmed by a cohort family per OMVLA referral, May 8 2026.)
Washington: after a foreclosure sale there is no dedicated line, and that gap is on the record.
Put it on the record: complaints and your member of Congress
You can file with the CFPB, the VA Inspector General, your State Attorney General, and your member of Congress. Filing builds a record and can prompt casework on your behalf.
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File a CFPB complaint
Any stage · national
Files a federal record on the servicer. Creates a paper trail even after a sale.
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VA Office of Inspector General
Any stage · national
Every filing is evidence for the whole cohort.
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Your member of Congress
Any stage · national
Filing builds a record and can prompt casework on your behalf. Your State Attorney General is the fourth filing route.
Build Your Case has the filing routes and the legal grounds in full.
Safe housing, money for the move, food and utilities
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SSVF (veteran families)
Stages 1 and 3 · national
1-877-4AID-VET
(1-877-424-3838)Prevention: homelessness-prevention help for veteran families. Ask about case management. Rapid re-housing: move-in costs, rapid re-housing, and case management for veteran families. You do not have to sign away rights to get help.
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Local resource line
Stage 3 · every state
Dial 211
Emergency shelter, rent, utility, and food help in your area. Ask for local rapid-re-housing and veteran-specific shelter programs in your area.
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Housing megalist & consumer help
Stage 3 · national
shelterforce.org
nclc.org
self-help.orgA vetted national list of housing help, NCLC’s consumer resources for credit and debt, and Self-Help Federal Credit Union’s affordable-credit counseling for rebuilding.
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Veteran-family support orgs
Stage 3 · national
Operation Homefront
Semper Fi & America’s FundEmergency financial aid and case coordination. Caregivers: Elizabeth Dole Foundation; case navigation: Code of Support.
People who have been here
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The family support group
Stage 3 · any stage
On Facebook, via the Linktree
Other families who have been through this, triaging new arrivals and sharing what worked.
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Coordinate across the cohort
Families and attorneys
veteransforeclosurecrisis@gmail.com
Attorneys and families who want to coordinate across the cohort. Add your state’s programs by writing to the same address.
Background, not an intake line: NPR’s multi-year investigation (Arnold / Lawrence), most recently April 2, 2026 ↗
THE NEW VA PARTIAL CLAIM
What the Partial Claim changes, and what it does not
WHAT CHANGED
VA can accept Partial Claims
VA formally launched the Partial Claim Program on June 15, 2026, and VA systems can accept Partial Claim trial-payment-plan events.
S007 · VA launch release
WHAT IT DOES NOT DO BY ITSELF
It does not mean your servicer is ready
Borrower access depends on the mortgage servicer having implemented both the new Loss Mitigation Waterfall and the Partial Claim. Servicers have until November 28, 2026. Do not assume a federal program’s launch date means your servicer has implemented it for your loan.
S025 · VA servicer FAQs
VFC did not locate, in the reviewed VA Partial Claim and servicing materials, a Partial Claim mechanism that reopens a completed foreclosure.
Search finding · last checked Sep 18, 2026
Ask your own servicer, in writing, whether the new VA waterfall and Partial Claim are implemented for your loan.
IF THE FIRST ANSWER IS “NO”
Legal aid will often say no, and that is not a judgment on your case
Most legal aid offices cannot take wrongful foreclosure cases. Knowing that before you start calling saves you days you may not have.
The legal-aid pipeline is not staffed for this. Most veteran-family wrongful-foreclosure cases turn on RESPA and mortgage-servicing claims, which legal aid programs are generally not resourced to litigate. State-level pro-bono referral programs in several states have been closing referrals on these matters as outside their pool. If you are told no, it is usually a scope and capacity answer, not an answer about the strength of your case.
WHAT TO DO ANYWAY, IN THIS ORDER
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First
Call the deadline lines
Call the eviction and counseling numbers above first. They are staffed for the deadline you are actually facing.
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Then
Ask for two things before you hang up
Ask any office that turns you down for two things before you hang up: a referral to a private RESPA or mortgage-servicing attorney in your state, and whether they know of anyone taking these cases on a fee-shifting basis. Fee-shifting means the case can be paid work rather than pro bono, which changes who can say yes.
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While you look
File the complaints
File the complaints while you look for counsel. They build the record whether or not you find a lawyer. Build Your Case has the filing routes and the legal grounds in full.
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Also
Coordinate with the cohort
Attorneys and families who want to coordinate across the cohort: veteransforeclosurecrisis@gmail.com.
WHAT VFC CAN AND CANNOT DO
What this project can do for you, and what it is not
WHAT VFC CAN DO
- Keep the record. What happened and what is live now, with its sources: Current Status · Evidence & sources.
- Count you without naming you. Be counted: add your household to the count by state without being named. Three consent choices, changeable any time.
- Carry your story on your terms. Share your story safely. It is entirely optional, and nothing is published without your consent.
- Connect you with families who have been here, through the family support group, and coordinate attorneys and families across the cohort: veteransforeclosurecrisis@gmail.com.
WHAT VFC IS NOT
- Not legal advice. This is practical information, not legal advice. Talk to a legal-aid attorney about your specific situation.
- Not a crisis line. If you are in crisis, call 988, then press 1, or text 838255.
- Not your servicer, and not VA. VFC cannot tell you whether the Partial Claim is implemented for your loan. Ask your servicer, in writing.
- Who keeps this: About.
GET HELP · EVERY PAGE WRITTEN FOR FAMILIES
Six more pages, in the order a family usually needs them
This page is for the week you are in. These are for the days and months around it.
- Print it
- The First 72 Hours. A one-page checklist for the three days after a foreclosure or eviction notice. Print it.
- The months after
- Build your case. What to keep, where to file a complaint, and the legal grounds a lawyer will ask about. The months after this week.
- Any time
- Check your escrow. Any time, before or after a sale. Whether a property tax exemption the county granted is still being collected through your mortgage payment.
- If you refinanced
- Check your refinance. Any time, if you refinanced a VA loan. The six conditions federal law sets, checked from your own closing papers.
- Any stage
- Be counted. Any stage, including years after. Add your household to the count by state without being named. Three consent choices, changeable any time.
- Before going public
- Share your story safely. Before you talk to anyone public. What we will and will not publish, and how to send it with the least risk to your household.
SOURCES, UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS