Stop a Sheriff Sale in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania

A sheriff sale in Lehigh County is the last step of a judicial foreclosure, not the first. The lender sued you in the Lehigh 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 Lehigh 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.

Lehigh County sheriff sales are held on a published monthly cycle at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown, with the sale list posted by the Sheriff's Office beforehand. Confirm status directly — postponements in Lehigh are routine and are not cancellations.

Lehigh County's Court of Common Pleas has operated a residential mortgage foreclosure diversion/conciliation program for owner-occupants, run with area housing counseling agencies. It is one of the more active programs in the Eastern District's northern counties.

The Lehigh Valley's warehouse and logistics economy produces households whose income depends on overtime and shift differentials. When those hours are cut, the mortgage payment does not move, and arrears build in a few months rather than a few years. That profile is exactly what Chapter 13 was designed for: cure the arrears over the plan while the regular payment resumes. Eastern District, with the Allentown-area courtroom serving the Valley.

The automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 takes effect the moment the petition is docketed in the Eastern District. That stops a scheduled Lehigh 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 Lehigh 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.