A crucial step to ensure your foreclosure complaint is filed quickly is to provide your attorney with the necessary documents for review.  The documents your attorney needs are:

• Any demand letters, notices, or pre-foreclosure correspondence sent to the mortgagor(s);
• A copy of the executed Note/Credit Agreement and Disclosure;
• A copy of the executed and recorded Mortgage/Deed of Trust;
• All endorsements or allonges;
• All assignments of mortgage, whether or not they were recorded;
• Any documents showing acquisition or merger;
• Any modifications or change in terms agreements;
• Title report, if ordered;
• Appraisal, if available; and
• Current payoff, including principal balance, per diem, past due payment/maturity date, and interest rate.

Also, it is important to advise your attorney whether you have possession of the original Note/Credit Agreement and Disclosure and Mortgage/Deed of Trust.  This ensures you are prepared in the event that the mortgagor(s) raises this issue during the foreclosure proceeding in an answer or discovery.

One of the first steps creditors take when owed money by a debtor is to try to collect the debt themselves without going to court. The creditor may contact the debtor directly or hire a debt collection agency. While debt collection agencies can be effective, there are federal laws in place to protect debtors against what are seen as unfair practices by collection agencies.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act outlines how debt collection agencies may contact and interact with debtors. If a court finds an agency in violation of the act, the agency may owe damages to the debtor. The Act does not apply to the creditor, but the result of a collection agency violating the Act may be the failure to retrieve the money the creditor is owed.

Creditors should understand what debt collection agencies can and cannot do. Choosing an agency that violates the law will delay and complicate the collection process, likely requiring further legal action.