Stop a Sheriff Sale in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

A sheriff sale in Dauphin County is the last step of a judicial foreclosure, not the first. The lender sued you in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, obtained a judgment, and asked the sheriff to sell the property. Everything before that step had an option attached to it, and so does this one: a Chapter 13 filed before the sale takes place stops it by operation of law.

This page covers how foreclosure actually runs in Dauphin County — where the sale happens, what the court offers, and what filing looks like from here. It is general information about Pennsylvania and federal law, not advice about your loan.

Dauphin County sheriff sales are conducted on a published monthly cycle at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, with the sale list and postponements posted by the Sheriff's Office. Verify your writ's status there before the sale week.

Dauphin County's Court of Common Pleas has operated a residential mortgage foreclosure diversion program for owner-occupied properties, giving homeowners a conciliation conference with the servicer and a housing counselor before the case advances. Confirm current intake with the Court's Prothonotary or a HUD-approved counselor in Harrisburg.

This is our home county — the office is on N 6th Street in Harrisburg, and the Middle District courthouse where the petition is filed is in the same city. For a Dauphin County homeowner facing a sale date, that proximity is practical, not decorative: documents get signed, the petition gets filed, and the sale stops the same day when it has to.

The automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 takes effect the moment the petition is docketed in the Middle District. That stops a scheduled Dauphin County sheriff sale — I have filed cases the morning of a sale.

From there, 11 U.S.C. § 1322(b)(5) lets you cure the arrears over the three-to-five-year plan while resuming the regular monthly payment. The lender cannot demand a lump sum and cannot refuse the cure. If your first mortgage exceeds the home's value, a wholly unsecured second mortgage or HELOC can also be stripped and discharged with the unsecured debt — relief that does not exist in Chapter 7.

To file quickly we need your mortgage statement, the foreclosure complaint or sale notice, the last six months of income, and a credit-counseling certificate. When a sale is imminent, a case can be filed within hours.

• Confirm your sale status with the Dauphin County Sheriff's office rather than the last letter you received.
• Open a written loss-mitigation file with your servicer through their portal and keep every submission dated.
• If an Act 91 notice arrived within the last 30 days, meet with a HUD-approved counselor and ask about HEMAP through PHFA — that window does not reopen.
• Get a straight read on whether the ongoing payment is affordable. If it is not, surrendering through Chapter 7 and discharging the deficiency is often the cleaner exit, and saying so early is worth more than a plan that fails in month eight.