(631)-271-3737,
QUEENS
(718)-751-0226
(516)-307-0262,
BROOKLYN
(347)-508-9316,
BOHEMIA
(631)-223-4502
(631)-271-3737,
QUEENS
(718)-751-0226
(516)-307-0262,
BROOKLYN
(347)-508-9316,
BOHEMIA
(631)-223-4502
Hear from Our Customers
New York requires judicial foreclosure. That means your lender has to sue you in court and win before they can take your house. That process takes an average of 1,958 days in New York—over five years. You have time, and more importantly, you have options.
As a mortgage foreclosure attorney in Kensington, NY, we can review your case for lender errors, missing documentation, or procedural violations that create legal defenses. We’ve seen clients stay in their homes for years while we negotiate, and in many cases, we’ve helped them keep the house entirely through loan modifications or Chapter 13 bankruptcy payment plans.
The automatic stay that comes with bankruptcy stops foreclosure proceedings immediately. No more threatening letters. No more auction dates. Just time to breathe and figure out what comes next. Some clients walk away with modified loans at 3.25% fixed rates and over $130,000 in deferred principal. Others rebuild and move forward debt-free. What matters is that you’re not making decisions out of panic.
Ronald D. Weiss graduated from NYU School of Law in 1988 and clerked for a federal bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York. He’s been practicing since 1989 and founded his firm in 1993. That’s over 30 years of bankruptcy, foreclosure defense, and mortgage modification work across Nassau County, Suffolk County, and New York City.
Kensington homeowners face the same pressures hitting the rest of New York. Foreclosure filings jumped 227.5% between 2021 and 2022. In 2024, New York ranked fourth nationally with 14,436 foreclosure starts. Rising interest rates, inflation, and insurance costs are pushing people who were fine two years ago into serious trouble today.
You’re meeting directly with an attorney when you call—not an intake coordinator or paralegal. The consultation is free, with no strings attached. We speak Spanish. We have evening hours. And we’ve handled everything from straightforward Chapter 7 filings to multi-year adversary proceedings involving business debts, tax liens, and active litigation.
First, we sit down and review your situation. What’s your mortgage balance? How far behind are you? What’s your income? What other debts are you carrying? We’re looking for leverage—lender mistakes, missing assignments, procedural errors, anything that gives us room to negotiate or defend.
From there, we map out your options. If you want to keep the house, we might pursue a loan modification, a Chapter 13 repayment plan, or both. If you’d rather walk away without the debt following you, Chapter 7 might make more sense. If your lender already filed a foreclosure lawsuit, we can fight it in court while simultaneously working on a modification or bankruptcy filing.
Once you decide to move forward, we handle the filing, the paperwork, the court appearances, and the negotiations with your lender. You’ll have direct access to our team throughout the process. Most clients see the automatic stay stop collection activity within days of filing. From there, it’s a matter of working the case toward the best possible outcome—whether that’s a modified loan, a repayment plan, or a clean financial reset.
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You’re getting a legal review of your mortgage, your foreclosure case (if one’s been filed), and your overall debt picture. We identify defenses, evaluate modification eligibility, and determine whether bankruptcy makes sense. That’s the strategic part.
Then there’s execution. We file the bankruptcy petition or the foreclosure defense. We negotiate with your lender or their attorneys. We attend court hearings, respond to motions, and handle any adversary proceedings that come up. If your case is complicated—multiple properties, business debts, tax issues—we’ve handled it before.
Kensington homeowners also benefit from our location-specific knowledge. We know the local courts. We know how Nassau County handles foreclosure timelines. We know which lenders are more willing to modify loans and which ones drag out the process. That kind of insight doesn’t come from a national firm with a call center—it comes from 30 years of practicing in the same area.
You’ll also get credit rebuilding guidance after your case resolves. Most clients see measurable credit improvement within 12 months of filing. Many get approved for credit cards, auto loans, even mortgages within a few years. The goal isn’t just to survive the crisis—it’s to come out stronger.
Yes, but the method depends on your situation. If you file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the automatic stay stops foreclosure immediately. That includes stopping scheduled auctions, halting sheriff sales, and pausing any collection activity. The stay remains in effect while your case is active.
If you’re not filing bankruptcy, a mortgage foreclosure lawyer can still fight the case in court. New York requires judicial foreclosure, meaning your lender has to sue you and win a judgment before taking your home. We defend those lawsuits by challenging standing, questioning whether the lender has proper documentation, and identifying procedural errors. These defenses can delay foreclosure for months or years, giving you time to negotiate a modification or sell the property on your terms.
In some cases, we’ve seen foreclosure cases dismissed entirely because the lender couldn’t prove they owned the loan or failed to follow required procedures. Even when dismissal isn’t possible, the delay creates leverage for negotiation.
A loan modification changes the terms of your existing mortgage—usually the interest rate, the monthly payment, or the principal balance. The goal is to make the loan affordable so you can keep your house. Lenders aren’t required to offer modifications, but many will if you can demonstrate financial hardship and prove you can afford the new payment.
The process starts with an application. You’ll submit financial documents—pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements—and explain why you fell behind. The lender reviews your income and expenses to determine what you can realistically afford. If they approve the modification, you’ll get new loan terms, often with a lower interest rate or deferred principal.
We’ve negotiated modifications with rates as low as 1% and deferred balances over $130,000. But the process can take months, and lenders frequently lose paperwork, request duplicate documents, or deny applications for unclear reasons. As a mortgage modification attorney in Kensington, NY, we handle the back-and-forth, resubmit documents, and escalate denials when necessary. If modification fails, we pivot to bankruptcy or foreclosure defense.
Chapter 7 wipes out unsecured debt like credit cards and medical bills, but it doesn’t stop foreclosure long-term. The automatic stay pauses foreclosure temporarily, but once your case closes (usually within a few months), the lender can resume the process. Chapter 7 works if you want to walk away from the house without owing a deficiency balance, or if eliminating other debts frees up enough income to catch up on the mortgage outside of bankruptcy.
Chapter 13 is designed for people who want to keep their home. You propose a repayment plan that spreads your missed mortgage payments over three to five years while you resume making regular monthly payments. As long as you stay current on the plan, foreclosure can’t proceed. At the end of the plan, you’re caught up, and the foreclosure is dismissed.
Chapter 13 also lets you strip second mortgages if your home is worth less than what you owe on the first mortgage. That can save tens of thousands of dollars. The downside is that Chapter 13 requires steady income and a commitment to the repayment plan. If you miss payments, the case can be dismissed, and foreclosure resumes.
New York has one of the longest foreclosure timelines in the country—an average of 1,958 days from the first missed payment to the final sale. That’s over five years. The process is slow because New York requires judicial foreclosure, meaning the lender has to file a lawsuit, serve you with court papers, and win a judgment before they can schedule a sale.
Once the lawsuit is filed, you have time to respond. If you don’t respond, the lender can seek a default judgment. If you do respond—especially with the help of a mortgage lawyer in Kensington, NY—the case can drag on for months or years as both sides exchange documents, file motions, and attend court hearings.
Even after the lender wins a judgment, they still have to schedule a sale, publish notices, and comply with additional procedural requirements. If you file bankruptcy at any point during this process, foreclosure stops entirely while your bankruptcy case is active. The timeline gives you options, but only if you use the time strategically instead of ignoring the problem.
Not necessarily. Chapter 13 is specifically designed to help you keep your home by catching up on missed payments over time. As long as you complete the repayment plan, you keep the house. Chapter 7 is different—it doesn’t provide a long-term mechanism to catch up on arrears, so if you’re behind on your mortgage and file Chapter 7, you’ll likely lose the home unless you can negotiate directly with the lender.
That said, Chapter 7 can still be useful if you’ve already decided to walk away from the house but want to eliminate the deficiency balance (the amount you’d still owe after the foreclosure sale if the home sells for less than the mortgage balance). Filing Chapter 7 before the foreclosure sale wipes out that deficiency, so you’re not stuck with a judgment for tens of thousands of dollars after losing the house.
If you want to keep your home, Chapter 13 is almost always the better option. If you want a clean break, Chapter 7 makes sense. As a mortgage negotiation attorney in Kensington, NY, we can walk you through both scenarios based on your income, your equity, and your long-term goals.
It’s a real conversation with an attorney—not a sales pitch, not an intake form with a paralegal. You’ll sit down with someone who’s handled hundreds of foreclosure and bankruptcy cases, and you’ll walk through your situation in detail. How much do you owe? How far behind are you? What’s your income? What other debts are you carrying?
From there, we explain your options. If you qualify for a loan modification, we’ll tell you. If Chapter 13 makes sense, we’ll explain how the repayment plan works and what it costs. If Chapter 7 is the better move, we’ll walk through the timeline and what you can expect. If fighting the foreclosure in court is viable, we’ll tell you what defenses might apply.
The consultation is free—no charge, no obligation, nothing credited toward future fees. You leave with a clear understanding of where you stand and what your next move should be. Most people feel relief just from knowing they have options. You’re not locked into anything, but you’ll have the information you need to make a decision that actually makes sense for your situation.
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