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Veterans Alliance — Veterans Alliance
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No Foreclosure Without a Court Order — and It Lasts Nine Months After You Come Home

A mortgage lender may not foreclose, sell or seize property for failure to pay a mortgage debt without court approval where the borrower is on active duty — Guard members called to federal active duty included. The mortgage has to predate the service. State law runs the protection from the date active duty begins until NINE MONTHS after discharge from it, and the office is explicit that you should give the servicer written notice before any sale.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A mortgage lender may not foreclose, sell or seize property for failure to pay a mortgage debt without court approval where the borrower is on active duty — Guard members called to federal active duty included. The mortgage has to predate the service. State law runs the protection from the date active duty begins until NINE MONTHS after discharge from it, and the office is explicit that you should give the servicer written notice before any sale.

What it's worth: No foreclosure, sale or seizure for mortgage default without court approval — from the date active duty begins until nine months after discharge from active duty under state law

  • The office states that both state and federal law protect active duty service members, including National Guard called to federal active duty, from foreclosure.
  • The office states that mortgage lenders may not foreclose, sell or seize property for a failure to pay a mortgage debt unless they have court approval.
  • The mortgage must have originated before the service member's military service, or for Guard and Reserve members before being called to active duty.
  • The office states that under state law the protection begins on the date of entering active duty and ends nine months after discharge from active duty.
  • The office states the protection should be preserved by giving written notice, before the sale, to the servicer of the obligation or to the attorney conducting the foreclosure, that you are a service member on active duty or recently discharged from active duty.
  • The office cites RIGL 34-27-4 as the supplemental authority for this protection.
  • The office's page also carries a note about the federal position as it stood until 31 December 2014, which is stale and should not be read as the current federal rule.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

From what you have told us so far, you appear to qualify.

How to claim it

  1. 1Write to the servicer AND to the attorney conducting the foreclosure. The office names both, and a notice that reaches only the servicer can miss the person actually running the sale.
  2. 2Send it before the sale. The office frames the notice as a step to protect your rights prior to the sale — afterwards is a different and much harder argument.
  3. 3Say which category you are in: on active duty now, or recently discharged from active duty. Both are named, and the second is the one people assume they have lost.
  4. 4Count nine months from discharge, not one year. That is the state figure the office publishes, and it is the number to diary the day you come off active duty.
  5. 5Check when the mortgage was taken out. The protection is for a mortgage that predates the service — or, for a Guard or Reserve member, one that predates the call to active duty.
  6. 6Remember what the protection actually is: it does not cancel the debt. It stops a foreclosure, sale or seizure going ahead without court approval, which buys the time to deal with the arrears.
  7. 7Ignore the federal date on the office's page. It describes the position as it stood until the end of 2014 and has not been refreshed; the state nine-month rule is the operative figure here.
Form
A written notice to the servicer or to the attorney conducting the foreclosure
File with
The mortgage servicer, and the foreclosing attorney
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThe office's page carries a federal sentence that expired: it describes the federal protection as lasting one year after discharge "until December 31, 2014". Do not plan around that sentence. The state figure the same page gives — nine months after discharge from active duty — is the one to work from, and the current federal period should be checked separately.
Worth knowingCourt approval is the whole mechanism. This is not a moratorium a lender chooses to honour; it makes a non-judicial sale unlawful without an order, which is why a written notice on the file matters so much.
Known gapThe statute section was not read this session, so the precise wording — what counts as court approval, and whether a spouse who is a co-borrower is covered — is unverified. Ask a legal services lawyer to read RIGL 34-27-4 before a sale date.

Sources

Why only one source type: The veterans office's own programme page states the protection, its start and end dates, the pre-service mortgage condition and the notice step, and cites the statute section. The state statute server refused a connection this session, so the section itself could not be read verbatim.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.