Got a Notice of Default in Washington? What It Means and What to Do Next

Most Washington home loans use a deed of trust. The usual foreclosure is nonjudicial, under the Deed of Trust Act, chapter 61.24 RCW, so a trustee can sell without filing a lawsuit. A judicial foreclosure under chapter 61.12 RCW arrives as a summons instead. If a summons is what you received, call a lawyer and do not use this timeline. A homeowners’ association letter can also look official and still follow different rules. Read the sender.

RCW 61.24.030(8) requires a written notice of default at least 30 days before a notice of sale is recorded, transmitted, or served, on the loans that subsection covers. For a house of up to four units, the notice should describe the property, name the recording county, state the default, and list the amount to reinstate before a notice of sale is recorded. Newer notices name the beneficiary, the servicer, and the trustee at the top. Write those three names down.

The form for a one-to-four unit house says that if you do nothing, a notice of sale may issue as soon as 30 days from the notice of default, and that the notice of sale gives a minimum of 120 days’ notice of the actual sale. If you already received a letter under RCW 61.24.031, one sentence in the statute uses 150 days. People call this a roughly 120-day timeline. It is a minimum in the law, not a date you should invent by counting forward on a calendar.

That earlier letter is how many foreclosures actually start. If you do not respond, a notice of default may follow 30 days after the contact rules are met. If you do respond, the statute allows 90 days from the first contact before the notice of default. Commercial loans and some seller-financed sales are outside that section. KindKey will not tell you which one you have. RCW 61.24.040 then says the notice of sale is recorded at least 90 days before the sale, or at least 120 days before it when the 61.24.031 letter was required.

Foreclosure Fairness Act mediation is RCW 61.24.163. You do not refer yourself. A housing counselor or a Washington attorney refers you after this notice, and no later than 90 days before the sale date on a notice of trustee’s sale. Some deeds of trust are excluded, and some smaller banks can certify an exemption. When a referral is proper, the trustee generally waits to record the notice of sale, or to hold the sale, until mediation is finished. The meeting can discuss a workout. It does not guarantee you keep the house.

Reinstatement is separate. This notice lists a cure amount for the period before a notice of sale is recorded. After a sale is scheduled, RCW 61.24.090 lets you discontinue it by curing the default before the eleventh day before the sale, or before the eleventh day before a continued sale. You pay the trustee, not a home buyer. The state Department of Commerce publishes a free counseling line at 1-877-894-HOME (4663). Your notice may print that number or a newer one. Use the number on the paper, or another HUD-approved counselor.

You can ask for a cash offer without catching up the mortgage or repairing the house. If you accept, the closing agent orders the payoff. Proceeds can pay the loan and other required liens when the price covers them. If it does not, the lender has to agree. You should see that on a settlement statement before you sign a deed. Equity is what remains after those amounts, and some houses have none. KindKey does not charge an agent commission or a separate assignment fee. An offer does not stop the notice.

A completed trustee’s sale is what this letter is pointing toward. Selling before that date is how many owners pay the loan, keep what is left, and try to avoid a foreclosure entry on a credit report. Late payments may already be there. KindKey cannot promise a score. Washington’s distressed-property rules are RCW 61.34. We do not interpret them. Do not deed the house away outside escrow. Guides for Auburn, Federal Way, Edgewood, and Milton, and the Kent foreclosure page, sit next to this one. Your notice still controls the dates.