Stop a Sheriff Sale in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

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

The Montgomery County Sheriff conducts real estate sales on a published monthly schedule at the courthouse complex in Norristown, with the sale list and postponements posted by the Sheriff's Office ahead of each date. Sale dates and formats shift periodically, so verify your writ's status directly before assuming you have another month.

Montgomery County's Court of Common Pleas has run a residential mortgage foreclosure conciliation practice for owner-occupied properties, coordinated with local housing counselors. Whether your case is eligible depends on how the complaint was filed and where it sits, which is one of the first things I check.

Montgomery County cases skew higher-balance: substantial mortgages, real equity in the property, and above-median household income. That combination changes the plan. Equity has to be exempted or accounted for, over-median income pushes the case toward a five-year Chapter 13, and the arrears cure is spread across those sixty months. Filings go to the Eastern District.

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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery 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.