Start with your deadline
Which options are still open depends on where your case is. Find your stage, then read the sections below for the ones that fit.
| Where you are | Options still open |
|---|---|
| Behind, no lawsuit yet | All of them: catch up, loss mitigation, HEMAP (after an Act 91 notice), selling |
| Act 91 notice received | The same, but the HEMAP window closes 33 days after the notice |
| Complaint served | Answer within 20 days; conciliation in Allegheny County; loss mitigation; catch up; bankruptcy; selling |
| Sale date set | Catch up (Act 6 loans, until one hour before bidding); loss mitigation only if complete more than 37 days before the sale; bankruptcy; selling |
| After the sale | Generally too late to keep or sell the house |
Our guide to how long foreclosure takes in Pennsylvania explains each stage’s timing.
Catch up on the loan
Paying the past-due amount brings the loan current and ends the foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission describes reinstatement as paying “the entire past-due amount, plus late fees or penalties, by an agreed-upon date” (FTC).
Pennsylvania gives many owners a legal right to do it. For a residential mortgage covered by Act 6, on a home with two or fewer units and an original loan at or below a yearly base figure ($329,411 in 2026, per the Department of Banking and Securities), the owner may cure the default by paying what is past due, plus reasonable fees, costs, and late charges, “at any time at least one hour prior to the commencement of bidding at a sheriff sale,” and “not more than three times in any calendar year.” A cure restores the owner “to the same position as if the default had not occurred” (41 P.S. § 404).
Ask the lender’s attorney in writing for the exact cure amount and how to pay it, so the payment is credited before the sale.
Ask your servicer for loss mitigation
Loss mitigation is the servicer’s word for the options that can keep you in the house or let you leave without a foreclosure. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes the main ones:
- A loan modification is “a change in your loan terms” (CFPB).
- A repayment plan is “an agreement between you and your lender to make up missed mortgage loan payments by adding part of the past-due amount to your regular payments over a period of time” (CFPB).
- Forbearance lets you “temporarily pause mortgage payments or make smaller payments. You still owe the full amount, and you pay back the difference later” (CFPB).
The federal servicing rules protect a complete application, and the timing matters (12 CFR 1024.41):
- Before the first filing: the servicer generally cannot file for foreclosure until it has decided the application and any appeal, or you turn down its offers.
- After the filing, but more than 37 days before the sale: the servicer must evaluate it within 30 days “for all loss mitigation options available to the borrower,” and cannot move for judgment or hold the sale until it decides.
- An appeal: if the application was complete 90 days or more before the sale, you can appeal a denial of a loan modification within 14 days.
- No promised result: the rule does not require the servicer to offer “any specific loss mitigation option.”
Send the application in writing, keep copies of everything, and write down who you spoke with and when.
Apply for HEMAP
The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency’s Homeowner’s Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program “is a loan program to prevent foreclosure. It is not a grant.” It can help with up to $60,000, and FHA-insured loans are not eligible. To apply, you must meet with a designated counseling agency “within 33 days from the date of the Act 91 Notice,” and while an application filed on time is processed, “foreclosure actions cease, as long as the procedural time limits are met.” PHFA says the process “can take up to four months to complete” (PHFA). The program’s number is 1-800-342-2397.
Use conciliation in Allegheny County
For owner-occupied homes with four or fewer units, the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas runs a mortgage foreclosure conciliation program, also called Save Your Home. The complaint arrives with an “Urgent Notice”; you call the hotline at 1-866-298-8020 and meet with a housing counseling agency, and a court order schedules a conciliation conference with the lender that “places a hold on the foreclosure proceedings” (Court of Common Pleas). The Sheriff’s Office describes it as “a 90-day stay of Sheriff Sale proceedings” (Allegheny County Sheriff).
File for bankruptcy
A bankruptcy petition creates an automatic stay. The federal courts explain that “the automatic stay stops the foreclosure proceeding as soon as the individual files the chapter 13 petition,” and that the stay “arises by operation of law and requires no judicial action” (United States Courts).
- Chapter 13 is the chapter built for saving a home. “By filing under this chapter, individuals can stop foreclosure proceedings and may cure delinquent mortgage payments over time,” through a repayment plan “over three to five years,” while keeping up with the regular payments that come due. The cure is available until the home “is sold at a foreclosure sale” (11 U.S.C. § 1322).
- Chapter 7 “does not involve the filing of a plan of repayment,” and “a bankruptcy discharge does not extinguish a lien on property” (United States Courts). Its stay can pause a sale, but unlike Chapter 13, it has no plan for catching up over time.
- Repeat filers get less protection. If you had a bankruptcy case pending in the past year that was dismissed, the stay ends on the 30th day after the new filing unless the court extends it. With two or more such cases, the stay does not go into effect at all unless the court orders it (11 U.S.C. § 362(c)(3) and (4)).
Bankruptcy has long-lasting effects beyond the house. Talk with a bankruptcy attorney before filing.
Sell the house, or hand it back
If keeping the house is not realistic, you can still avoid the sheriff sale:
- Sell it before the sale. You own the house until then, and a sale that pays off the loan ends the foreclosure. The FTC notes that a pending sales contract can lead a servicer to “postpone foreclosure proceedings.” See selling a house in foreclosure.
- A short sale, if you owe more than the house is worth. See short sales in Pennsylvania.
- A deed in lieu of foreclosure, where the lender accepts the deed instead of finishing the foreclosure. See deed in lieu of foreclosure.
What stops a sheriff sale right away
The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office answers this directly: “A Sheriff Sale can be stopped by (1) the writ being stayed… (2) a court order; (3) a bankruptcy being filed. (4) payment of the full amount due in full” (Allegheny County Sheriff). Under the court rules, the writ is stayed “upon written direction of the plaintiff to the sheriff,” or by the court on a legal or equitable ground (Pa.R.C.P. 3183). In practice, that means a cure payment or an agreement with the lender, a court order, or a bankruptcy filing.
Free help, and how to spot a scam
- HUD-approved housing counselors: HUD says “foreclosure, eviction, and homeless counseling are always free.” Call 800-569-4287 to find one (HUD).
- Save Your Home Hotline: 1-866-298-8020. Sheriff’s Mortgage Foreclosure Hotline: 412-350-4704.
- Neighborhood Legal Services, free civil legal aid for eligible residents: 1-866-761-6572.
The FTC warns that companies charging an upfront fee for mortgage relief are breaking the law, and that “transferring the deed does not transfer the mortgage, so you’ll still owe payments on your mortgage loan” (FTC). Our page on facing foreclosure in Pittsburgh lists every local resource.