Behind on your mortgage? Start here.

Real help, most of it free, none of it requiring you to talk to us. We put this page together because the people who contact homeowners in foreclosure almost never tell them what their options actually are.

On this page

Before you pay anyone
Free counseling
Free legal help
Dealing with your lender
Seniors, veterans, insurance
Help with bills
How the process works
Your county clerk
What to gather

Before you pay anyone a dollar

Florida law is on your side here. Know it.

A foreclosure-rescue company cannot collect payment before the work is done. Under Florida Statute 501.1377, a foreclosure-rescue consultant may not solicit, charge, or receive payment before completing every service in the agreement. If someone wants money up front to save your home, they are breaking the law.
If someone is buying your home while you stay in it, you get three business days to cancel. Equity-purchase agreements must be in writing, in large type, signed by both sides, with a separate notice of your cancellation right. You can cancel by 5 p.m. on the third business day and all your money comes back.
Never sign over your deed to someone promising to fix things, and be careful with anything that gives a stranger authority to act for you. The Florida Attorney General warns this is how people lose the house and the equity in it.
The Florida Homeowner Assistance Fund is closed. It stopped taking applications in 2022 and there is no statewide replacement. Anyone charging you a fee to “get your HAF money” is running a scam.

Violations carry penalties up to $15,000. Report them: Florida Attorney General Consumer Hotline 1-866-9-NO-SCAM (1-866-966-7226) · MyFloridaLegal.com. Mortgage broker or lender complaints: flofr.com.

Free foreclosure counseling

HUD-approved counselors are free by law. They will get on the phone with your servicer, read what the lender sends you, and tell you which programs you actually qualify for. For most people this is the best first call, better than a lawyer, better than us.

HUD Housing Counseling Free

800-569-4287

Connects you to a HUD-approved agency near you. Search by ZIP code at consumerfinance.gov/find-a-housing-counselor. Ask for a foreclosure prevention counselor specifically.

HOPE Hotline (HOPE NOW Alliance) Free · 24 hours

1-888-995-HOPE (1-888-995-4673)

Open around the clock, multiple languages. Counselors who negotiate with mortgage servicers every day. Listed by the Florida Attorney General as a legitimate free resource.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Free

855-411-2372

Find a counselor, or file a complaint when your servicer won’t respond, loses your paperwork, or gives you three different answers. Complaints filed here get a documented response, and that record matters later if the case goes badly.

Free and low-cost legal help

A foreclosure is a lawsuit. You have 20 days from being served to file a written answer with the court. Missing that deadline is how cases end fastest. Protect it even if you haven’t decided what you want to do yet.

Gulfcoast Legal Services: Housing & Mortgage Foreclosure Program Free if you qualify

941-746-6151

1112 Manatee Ave E, Bradenton, FL 34208. They handle foreclosure defense on homestead property and negotiate modifications and restructures with lenders. Recommended by the Sarasota County Clerk for at-risk homeowners. More at gulfcoastlegal.org.

Legal Aid of Manasota Free if you qualify

1-800-625-2257 legal hotline

Serves Sarasota and Manatee counties; housing is one of their practice areas. You’ll be pre-screened by phone and, if you qualify, given an appointment with an intake attorney. No fees for any of their services. Apply at legalaidofmanasota.org/get-help.

Sarasota
1900 Main Street, Ste. 302
941-366-0038

Bradenton
1201 6th Ave. W., Ste. 402
941-747-1628

Venice
749 Shamrock Boulevard
941-492-4631

Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm.

The Florida Bar Lawyer Referral Service

1-800-342-8011

Monday–Friday, 8:00am–5:30pm. A 30-minute consultation costs no more than $25. Spanish-language assistance available. The Bar also keeps a consumer foreclosure page at floridabar.org.

One caution about who gives you legal advice

Only a licensed attorney can give legal advice or represent you in the foreclosure case. Non-lawyers offering “foreclosure rescue” document services have been a recurring problem in Florida. The Florida Bar has warned about it directly. A HUD counselor is free and legitimate; a non-lawyer charging you to handle your court case is neither.

Dealing with your lender

Most homeowners never ask for these two numbers, and every decision you might make depends on having both. Put the request in writing and keep a copy.

A reinstatement quote: what it takes to catch up and stop the case.
A payoff quote: what it takes to end the loan entirely.

They are different numbers and people confuse them constantly. Ask for each to be good through a specific date, because both grow as fees and interest accrue.

Then ask what loss mitigation options you qualify for. The menu usually includes:

Repayment plan: the arrears spread across your regular payments for a year or two.
Forbearance: payments paused or reduced while you get back on your feet.
Loan modification: new terms, so the payment is one you can actually make.
Partial claim (FHA): the missed payments moved into a separate, no-interest second that comes due when you sell or refinance. Ask about this by name if you have an FHA loan.
Short sale or deed in lieu: last resorts, and both have tax and credit consequences worth asking a counselor about first.

Useful thing to say on the phone: “I want to request loss mitigation review. Please send me the application package and a written reinstatement and payoff quote. Can you give me your name and a direct reference number for this call?” Write down who you spoke to and when. Servicers lose files, and your notes become the record.

If what comes back is confusing, take it to a HUD counselor. Reading lender paperwork with you is exactly their job, and it costs nothing.

If you’re a senior, a veteran, or fighting an insurance company

Florida Elder Helpline Free

1-800-963-5337

Florida Department of Elder Affairs. Routes you to your local Area Agency on Aging for benefits, utility and housing assistance, and senior services. TDD 1-800-955-8771.

VA Loan Technicians, for VA-backed mortgages Free

877-827-3702

VA loan technicians can intervene directly with your servicer, and you do not need to be in default to call. Ask about special forbearance, repayment plans, modification, and the VA partial claim. Talk to them before agreeing to a short sale or deed in lieu. Both can affect your future VA loan benefit.

Florida Insurance Consumer Helpline Free

1-877-693-5236 (1-877-MY-FL-CFO)

Monday–Friday, 8am–5pm ET; from out of state, 850-413-3089. If a storm claim was denied, underpaid, or is dragging, and that’s why you fell behind, this is where you push back. Florida’s Department of Financial Services will open a case with your insurer.

Help with bills while you sort this out

Dial 211 Free · 24/7

211

Free and confidential. Local referrals for rent and mortgage assistance, utilities, food, prescriptions, and senior services across Sarasota and Manatee counties, including emergency funds that never advertise. If you only make one call today and the mortgage isn’t the most urgent thing, make it this one.

How a Florida foreclosure actually works

It goes through a judge. Florida is a judicial foreclosure state. Even uncontested cases usually take a year or more from filing to a sale date. You almost certainly have more time than the letters suggest.
You have 20 days from being served to file a written answer. Filing something, even a simple answer, keeps you in the case and keeps your options open.
You keep the house until it is sold at auction and the clerk issues a certificate of title. Nobody can change your locks or make you leave before that.
You can sell any time before the sale. Being in foreclosure does not take away your right to sell your own home, and a sale you control almost always nets more than an auction.
If the house sells for more than what’s owed, the surplus is yours. You claim it through the court. Be careful here: “surplus recovery” outfits will contact you offering to collect your own money for a large cut of it. The clerk’s office can tell you how to file the claim yourself.
After a sale, the lender may ask the court for a deficiency if the sale didn’t cover the debt. On an owner-occupied home of one to four units, that request must be made within one year of the certificate of title, and the amount is capped at the judgment minus what the home was truly worth on the sale date.

Your county clerk: the free source of truth

Your case file is public. Anything a caller claims about your case can be checked here, by you, for nothing.

Sarasota County Clerk
(941) 861-7400
sarasotaclerk.com: see “At-Risk Homeowners” and “Foreclosure FAQs”

Manatee County Clerk
(941) 749-1800
1115 Manatee Ave W, Bradenton · manateeclerk.com

The Twelfth Judicial Circuit’s foreclosure division covers Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto: jud12.flcourts.org.

What to gather before you call anyone

Half an hour with a folder saves weeks. Counselors, lawyers and buyers all ask for the same things.

The lawsuit papers you were served, including the case number.
Your most recent mortgage statement, and the last letter the servicer sent.
Reinstatement and payoff quotes, once you’ve requested them.
Your homeowners association statement, if you’re in an HOA or condo, since association debt is often a separate case from the mortgage.
Your property tax status and insurance policy.
Honest monthly income and expenses. Every program decision turns on this.
Any second mortgage, HELOC, or lien you know about.

This page is general information gathered from public sources. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and reading it doesn’t make anyone your attorney or your counselor. Programs and phone numbers change; every number here was verified against the organization’s own page on September 25, 2026. If something is out of date, call us at (941) 702-4596 and we’ll fix it.