| Arkansas Foreclosure
Procedure
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Use the following
foreclosure process to develop a definite plan of action with
well-timed, well-informed steps, so you can stop the foreclosure process
and save your home!
Judicial Foreclosure Available: Yes
Non-judicial Foreclosure Available: Yes
Under Arkansas law, a residential real
property mortgage held by a bank, savings, and loan or mortgage company
may be foreclosed under a power of sale clause in the mortgage.
Agricultural real property or construction loans operate by different
rules.
Power of Sale Foreclosure
Preliminary Notice
Contents of Notice
The Notice of default and Intention to
sell must name the deed of trust parties, give recordings information,
describe the default and the amount due on the loan and state the
trustee’s or lender’s intention to undertake a foreclosure sale. The
notice must include in conspicuous type the following warning:
"YOU
MAY LOSE YOUR PROPERTY IF YOU
DO NOT TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION."
Advertising
The notice of default and intention to
sell must be published once a week for four consecutive weeks prior to
the date of the sale in a newspaper of general circulation in the county
where the property is located. The final publication must be no more
than ten days before the sale.
Mailing
The notice must be mailed to the
borrower by certified mail to the last address the lender knows of
writing ten days after recording the notice. This includes any borrower
of record or of whom the lender has actual notice. The notice must also
be mailed to anyone who records a Request for Notice that specifically
described the mortgagee including its recording information.
Recording
The lender must record a copy of the
Notice of Default and Intention to Sell.
Special Procedures—Reinstatement
Rights
An appraisement of the property must be
made before foreclosure day. The justice of the peace for the country in
which the property is located must appoint three disinterested
householders of the county where the property. The appraisers must take
an oath that they will ‘well and truly view’ and appraise the property
that may be shown to them. The appraisers must then view and appraise
the property, and then all or any two of them must write an appraisal
report and deliver the same to the person holding the foreclosure sale.
The person conducting the sale must make it available to any interested
party. For their services, the appraiser’s are paid $1 which comes from
the proceeds of the foreclosure.
In any foreclosure under a mortgage or
deed of trust in Arkansas, the property must sell for not less than
two-thirds of the appraised value. If it does not, then it may be
offered for sale within 12 months. The second sale may be to the highest
bidder without reference to the appraisement.
Sale Procedures
The attorney for the mortgage or
trustee may conduct the sale and act as the auctioneer. The foreclosure
sale must take place at the time, date and place specified in the notice
of Default and Intention to Sell, but the sale must be within certain
limits.
Time
It must be held between 9:00 a.m. and
4:00 p.m. on a week day, and not on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday.
Place
It must be held at either the property
being foreclosed on or the front door of the county courthouse where the
property is located.
Manner
Any person including the mortgagee
(lender) may bid at the sale, except the trustee, who may bid on the
behalf of the beneficiary (lender) but not for himself or herself in
deed of trust sales. The high bidder must pay the price bid at the time
of sale, or within ten days. The lender may bid by canceling out what it
is owed on the loan, including unpaid taxes, insurance, costs or sale
and maintenance, but for cash for any higher price. The mortgage or
trustee will execute and deliver a trustee’s deed to the high bid
purchaser.
Postponement
The sale may be postponed by public
proclamation at the time, place and date last appointed for sale, up to
seven days past the original date, but if for a longer time, then the
whole notice procedure must be performed a second time, including the
60-day wait.
Post-Sale Procedures
The purchaser may obtain possession
once the deed is recorded. The occupant of the foreclosed premises
becomes a tenant at sufferance against whom the purchases may use a writ
of assistance, if necessary, to effect the eviction.
The proceeds of the sale will be
applied as follows: (1) to pay the expenses of the sale; (2) to the debt
owed; (3) to any recorded lien holders in the order of their priority,
and; (4) to the original borrower.
Within ten days after the sale, the
trustee or mortgagee will file an affidavit stating that a sale was made
in accordance with the law, including the time, place and date of the
sale, and the purchase price. A copy must be mailed to all persons
entitled to receive notice of the foreclosure as described earlier.
Judicial Foreclosure
In judicial foreclosure, a court
decrees the amount of the indebtedness of the borrower and gives him or
her a short time to pay. If the borrower fails to pay within that time,
then the clerk of the court, as commissioner, advertises the property
for sale. Sales of real property under court order will be on a credit
of not less than three months not more than six months, or on
installments to not more than four months credit overall. To secure
payment, a lien will be retained on the property for its price. The
purchaser must further give a bond with surety for the purchase price.
The lender may bid at the sale. The lender can bid by crediting a
portion (or all) of the amount the court found was owed to the lender
against the sales price of the property purchased at the foreclosure
sale. Of the teal estate does not sell for an amount equal to what’s due
on the mortgage loan, then the lender may seize other property from the
borrower as in an ordinary judgment.
Deficiency
The lender may sue the borrower for a
deficiency within 12 months of a power of sale clause foreclosure. The
lender may sue for (1) the difference between the foreclosure sale price
and the balance due on the loan, or (2) the balance due on the
loan minus the fair market value of the property, whichever is less.
Redemption
When property is sold under a chancery
court order, the borrower has one year from the date of the sale to
redeem the property by payment of the amount for which the property was
sold plus interest. However, the mortgagor may waive the right of
redemption in a mortgage or deed of trust. In the case of a deed of
trust or mortgagee’s sale under a power of sale clause, as described
earlier, the borrower is not entitled to a right of redemption.
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