Facing a Sheriff Sale in Philadelphia? Your Options

Can you still stop a sheriff sale in Philadelphia?

Often, yes. A sheriff sale is the last step of a long court case, with several chances to stop or delay it. Do these this week, in order.

1. Call the Save Your Home Philly Hotline. Dial (215) 334-4663. The Sheriff's Office says it should be your first call. You get a free housing counselor and, if you qualify, free legal help.
2. Find out which kind of sale it is. Look up your address on the Sheriff's sale listings. Mortgage and tax sales have different fixes.
3. Call the lender's attorney. Their name is on the sale notice, and the Sheriff says only they can take a listed house off the sale. Ask for the amount to catch up, the payoff and what they need to postpone.
4. Send your servicer a complete application for help. If it arrives more than 37 days before the sale, federal rules stop most servicers from holding the sale until they decide on it. Small servicers are exempt, and it generally works once.
5. If the sale is days away, ask the court. File a Petition to Postpone. You can file up to the day before, but the court favors petitions filed a week ahead.
6. Know your equity. Get an agent's price opinion and a written cash offer to compare paths with real numbers.

What free help can you get in Philadelphia?

• Save Your Home Philly Hotline, (215) 334-4663. City-funded housing counseling and legal aid for any Philadelphia homeowner who lives in the at-risk house, for mortgage or tax foreclosure.
• The Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program. For owner-occupied homes, the court sets a conciliation conference, and the lender cannot get a judgment until it is over. Conferences are held Thursdays in Courtroom 676 of City Hall, with housing counselors and lawyers from Community Legal Services, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, SeniorLAW Center and Philadelphia VIP on hand. If your case was left out, you can file a certification asking for one. Skip it and the court can let the lender move ahead.
• The Foreclosure Prevention Grant Program. Up to $5,000 for homeowners three or more months behind on the mortgage, with income limits.
• HEMAP. A state loan from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) that can bring the mortgage current. Call 1-800-342-2397.

How does a Pennsylvania foreclosure reach a sheriff sale?

A sheriff sale is a public auction the Sheriff runs after a court orders a property sold to pay a debt. Philly has mortgage sales, brought by lenders, and tax sales, for unpaid City debts. A mortgage case runs through the Court of Common Pleas, and every step comes with a notice.

Total time varies, so go by the dates on your own papers.

How are Philadelphia sheriff sales scheduled and postponed?

After judgment, the lender gets a writ of execution and the Sheriff lists the house. Sale lists are advertised in The Legal Intelligencer and posted online, and mortgage sales run on Bid4Assets the first Tuesday of each month. The lender sets its minimum, called the upset price.

Under the Sheriff's conditions of sale, a listed sale stops only if the lender's attorney says so, a court orders it, or the Sheriff decides to. In practice:

• The lender's attorney agrees, for example while a complete modification application, a HEMAP application or a signed sale is pending. They must tell the Sheriff by 3 p.m. the day before.
• A judge orders it. The court's Petition to Postpone form lists reasons such as HEMAP, selling the property (attach the agreement of sale) and bankruptcy. You serve the lender's attorney, then bring proof and your papers to a hearing. The form lists a $67.68 filing fee, which the court can waive.
• A bankruptcy filing pauses the sale automatically. Decide that with a bankruptcy attorney.

What if the sheriff sale is for unpaid taxes or water bills?

The City can take a house to a tax sale when the owner has no payment arrangement for City debts on it, including real estate taxes and water and sewer bills. The plaintiff on your papers is usually the City of Philadelphia.

If you live there, apply for an Owner-Occupied Real Estate Tax Payment Agreement (OOPA). Payments follow your income and household size, can be as low as $0 a month and need no down payment, and the City says it protects your home from a tax sale while you follow its terms. Homestead, the tax freezes and LOOP can lower future bills, and the court has a separate petition to postpone tax sales.

A tax sale can sometimes be undone. If the home was owner-occupied for the 90 days before the sale, the owner can ask the court to redeem it within nine months of the deed by paying the back taxes and what the buyer paid. Mortgage foreclosure sales have no such right.

To see how back taxes, water bills and other liens get paid off when a house is sold, read our guide to selling with back taxes or liens.

What are all your options, including keeping the house?

Here is every real path. Most have nothing to do with selling to us, and a housing counselor can help you compare them for free.

The federal courts warn that you can still lose the home in Chapter 13 if you miss new payments, and they strongly recommend a qualified attorney. Forgiven debt from a short sale or deed in lieu can be taxable, so ask a tax professional.

What happens to your equity if you sell first?

Equity is what the house is worth minus everything owed on it.

If the lender buys the house back for its costs, nothing is left to hand out. If an outside bidder pays more than the debt and liens, the extra is yours, and in Philadelphia you claim it from the Sheriff's Home Asset Recovery Team (H.A.R.T.) without paying a finder. If the lender buys for less than you owe and wants the rest, Pennsylvania law makes it ask the court to set the home's fair market value within six months, and you get credit for that value.

How does selling as-is work when a sale date is set?

Until the sale, you own the house and can sell it, as long as the sale pays off the lender or the lender approves a short sale. Run these steps side by side.

1. Get the numbers. A written payoff from the lender's attorney, plus a title check for taxes, water bills and judgments.
2. Pick how to sell. A listing with an agent can bring more if the house shows well and there is time. A cash buyer takes it as-is and can close quickly.
3. Protect the timeline. Send the signed agreement of sale to the lender's attorney and ask for a postponement if closing falls after the sale date. If they refuse, the court petition lets you cite the pending sale. No one can promise a postponement, so leave room.
4. Close before the sale. The lender is paid from the sale money, the sale is called off, and the rest is yours.

Honest money talk: a cash, as-is offer is usually below what a fully repaired house could sell for on the open market. The buyer pays for the repairs, takes the risk of what is behind the walls, carries the costs and commits to a fast, certain closing. You save the repairs, cleaning, showings, commissions and the risk of a buyer backing out days before the sale. We pay all the closing costs, and your written offer shows exactly what you walk away with before you sign.

How Vivid can help

Vivid Properties is a local, family-owned company on Amber Street in Kensington that buys houses directly for cash, as-is, across Philadelphia and the suburbs. Tell us your sale date and we will make a fair written cash offer, usually within 24 hours, with no fees from us and no agent commissions. You pick the closing day, and a real local person answers. If a modification, HEMAP or a listing would leave you better off, we will say so. See how we calculate our offer, cash sale vs listing and how to check any cash buyer, including us.

How do sheriff sales work in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties?

Pennsylvania's rules apply statewide, but schedules and local help differ.

Bucks County

Sales are held the second Friday of each month at 11 a.m. in the Commissioner's Meeting Room of the county Administration Building, 55 E. Court Street, Doylestown. Bucks County Sheriff: 215-348-6124. More on selling in Bucks County.

Delaware County, PA

Sales are held the third Friday of each month at 11 a.m. (Thursday if that Friday is a holiday) in the County Council Meeting Room of the Government Center Building in Media. Real Estate Department: 610-891-4305. Tax sales run separately through the county Tax Claim Bureau. More on Delaware County, PA.

Montgomery County, PA

Sales run online through Bid4Assets on dates the Sheriff posts (610-278-3000). The court's Mortgage Foreclosure Diversionary Program covers owner-occupied homes in cases filed since October 16, 2024 with total debt of $500,000 or less: an automatic pause, a conference about 5 to 6 weeks after filing, and free counseling through Clarifi. You must attend to stay in it. More on Montgomery County, PA.

Inherited the house and the loan fell behind? See selling an inherited house in Philadelphia. In New Jersey? See foreclosure in New Jersey.

Common questions

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. For your situation, talk to a Pennsylvania attorney or tax professional.