Notice of Trustee Sale in Washington: How Much Time You Have and How to Stop Losing Your Equity

This is still nonjudicial foreclosure under the Deed of Trust Act, chapter 61.24 RCW. A summons would be a judicial case under chapter 61.12 RCW instead. RCW 61.24.040 tells the trustee to record the notice where the deed of trust is recorded, mail it, and post it or serve an occupant. The trustee also publishes it in a legal newspaper, once between the 35th and 28th day before the sale, and once between the 14th and 7th day before the sale.

The notice of default came first. For the loans RCW 61.24.030(8) covers, it goes out at least 30 days before the notice of sale is recorded, transmitted, or served. The form describes a minimum of 120 days’ notice of the auction. If you are holding the sale notice, plan from the date printed on it.

RCW 61.24.040 records the notice at least 90 days before the sale, or at least 120 days before it if a letter under RCW 61.24.031 was required. That 120-day rule is the timeline people repeat, and it is a minimum. The same section says the sale is not to be held less than 190 days after the date of default. Do not count 190 days from a missed payment. Ask your attorney, and use the printed sale date.

A trustee may postpone the sale for periods that together are not supposed to exceed 120 days. That is the trustee’s choice. KindKey cannot order it. If the sale is continued, RCW 61.24.090 runs the cure to the eleventh day before the continued sale. The auction is held at the time and place the notice states.

RCW 61.24.090 lets you discontinue the sale by curing the default before the eleventh day before the sale date. You pay the arrears and the trustee’s allowed costs, not the principal that would not yet be due, and you pay the trustee. After that eleventh day, ask your attorney what remains. KindKey does not calculate the cure or collect it.

Foreclosure Fairness Act mediation, RCW 61.24.163, is referred by a housing counselor or an attorney, not by you alone, and no later than 90 days before the sale date. If the sale is already inside that window, ask a counselor whether a referral is still open. Some loans are excluded, and some smaller banks can certify out under RCW 61.24.166. Commerce’s free line is 1-877-894-HOME (4663). Use the hotline on your notice if it differs.

The statute says a trustee’s sale deprives the owner of all interest in the property. Some auctions bring a surplus, which has its own claim process, and many do not. A sale you choose before the auction is how people try to pay the loan and keep what is left. That remainder is the equity, and it exists only if the price clears the payoff and the other required liens. If it does not, the lender has to agree.

Paying the loan off before a completed foreclosure is also how owners try to avoid a foreclosure entry on a credit report. Missed payments may already show. KindKey cannot promise what gets reported. You can ask for an as-is offer without reinstating. We do not charge an agent commission or a separate assignment fee. RCW 61.34 is the distressed-property law, and we do not interpret it. Do not deed the house away outside escrow.