How long does foreclosure take in Illinois?

Illinois doesn't allow a lender to sell a house under a power of sale in the mortgage. A mortgage is foreclosed only under the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Law, which means a lawsuit, a judgment, a judicial sale, and a court order confirming the sale. Each of those steps has its own waiting period in the statute, and each also depends on things the statute doesn't set: how quickly you were served, when the judge enters the judgment, whether anyone contests the case, and whether a court stays it.

So the honest answer has two parts. The statute's periods, which we can state exactly and cite. And your case's dates, which only your court file shows. This guide gives you the first so you can make sense of the second.

Federal mortgage servicing rules generally bar a servicer from making the first notice or filing for a foreclosure until the loan is more than 120 days delinquent, with exceptions such as a due-on-sale violation. That rule is about the servicer, not the court, and how it applies to a particular loan is a question for the servicer and a housing counselor.

When a residential foreclosure is filed, the summons must come with a Homeowner Notice whose wording the legislature set. It says you continue to own your home until the court rules otherwise, that you have the right to reinstate within 90 days after you receive the summons, and that you have the right to sell, refinance, or pay off the loan during the redemption period.

After you're served, the statute gives you a window to reinstate: cure the defaults and pay the costs the mortgage requires, without paying the accelerated balance. The window closes 90 days after the date you, and every other borrower on the loan, were served with the summons or by publication. When service is by publication, the first publication date starts the count.

If you reinstate, the foreclosure is dismissed and the mortgage continues as if there had been no default. If a court has made a written finding that you used this right, it isn't available again on the same mortgage for five years. The court may enter a judgment of foreclosure before the 90 days are up, subject to your right to reinstate.

For a house that was residential when the case began, the redemption period ends on the later of two dates: 7 months from the date all the borrowers were served, or 3 months from the date the judgment of foreclosure is entered. Redeeming means paying the judgment amount plus the costs the statute lists, and giving the lender's attorney written notice at least 15 days, not counting weekends and court holidays, before the date you choose.

The statute shortens the period in two cases. If the court finds the property abandoned, redemption ends 30 days after the judgment, and reinstatement can't run past it. And if the court finds the property is worth less than 90 percent of what's owed and the lender waives any deficiency, the period ends at the later of the end of reinstatement or 60 days after the judgment.

Once the redemption period expires, the statute says it can't be revived. Filing a case or appealing doesn't pause it on its own; only a court order that stays the running of the period, or a federal statute, extends it, and then by the rules the statute spells out.

The house can't be sold until the reinstatement and redemption periods have both run, unless redemption was waived. Before the sale, the lender has to publish a notice of sale once a week for at least three consecutive weeks, with the first notice no more than 45 days before the sale and the last no less than 7 days before it, and the notice has to say when and where the sale is.

After the sale, the court holds a hearing to confirm it. The notice of that hearing goes to the homeowner even if a default was already entered, and for residential real estate it must say, in bold capitals, that the homeowner has the right to remain in possession for 30 days after an order of possession is entered. The court confirms the sale unless the required notice wasn't given, the terms were unconscionable, the sale was conducted fraudulently, or justice was otherwise not done.

Through the 30th day after the sale is confirmed, the statute's possession rules still apply to the homeowner. After that 30th day, the holder of the certificate of sale or deed is entitled to possession against the parties whose interests the court terminated, without resort to proceedings under another statute. The Homeowner Notice puts the practical point first: the lawful occupants of a home have the right to live in it until a judge enters an eviction order.

Put the statute's floors end to end and, in the ordinary residential case, with no abandonment finding and no deficiency waiver shortening the period, a judicial sale can't come sooner than 7 months after service, because the redemption period can't end before that and the sale can't happen before redemption ends. The confirmation hearing and the 30 days of possession come after the sale.

That is the fastest the statute allows, not a prediction. Service by publication, a judgment entered weeks or months after service, a contested case, a bankruptcy stay, a court order staying the period, or a crowded court calendar each add time the statute doesn't measure. Only your court file says where your case is, and a lawyer or a HUD-approved housing counselor is the person to read it with you.

A sale that pays what's owed is one of the things the Homeowner Notice says you may do during the redemption period. Whether there's time for one depends on your dates, the payoff, and the title, which a title company and your lawyer can check. Our page on how to sell a house in foreclosure in Illinois covers the payoff statement, short sales, surplus and what we do and don't do.

We buy houses as they stand and put offers in writing. We don't stop or delay a foreclosure, negotiate with a lender, or file anything in a case, and we can't tell you how long yours will take. A cash offer is usually below what a repaired house would list for.