District of Columbia Foreclosure Help: Know Your Timeline, Know Your Equity
The earlier you act, the more options you may have.
DC has a mediation right with real teeth
The District allows both non-judicial foreclosure under a deed of trust and judicial foreclosure. Because the mandatory mediation program and its void-sale sanction attach to the non-judicial track, lenders have increasingly moved to judicial foreclosure to avoid it.
Where mediation does apply, it is not a courtesy. A non-judicial sale conducted without a recorded mediation certificate is void — not merely voidable. That is the strongest such sanction in the country.
The 30-day election is self-executing and unforgiving
You will receive a Notice of Default on Residential Mortgage, with a copy sent to the Mediation Administrator. It must include lender contact information, housing counseling resources, descriptions of available loss-mitigation programs, a loss-mitigation application, and a mediation election form.
No later than 30 days after that notice is mailed, you must return the mediation election form and fee to the Mediation Administrator and submit the loss-mitigation application to the lender. The statute says plainly that you forfeit the right to mediation if you do not.
There is no cure for missing it and no good-cause extension. If the notice of default has arrived, this is the deadline that matters more than any other on this page.
Once elected, the first session must begin no later than 90 days after the notice of default was mailed, and mediation must conclude within 180 days, extendable by 30 with mutual consent.
The notice of sale
Written notice of foreclosure sale must be sent by certified and first-class mail to you and to the record title holder at the last known address, with a copy sent to the Mayor — and the 30-day period before the sale runs from the date the Mayor receives it, not from the date it was mailed to you. Both the mediation certificate and the notice of sale must be recorded in the DC land records.
Right to cure, and no redemption after
The District gives a statutory right to cure and reinstate up to five business days before bidding begins, by paying the amounts needed to bring the account current (excluding acceleration-triggered amounts), performing your other obligations, and paying expenses properly associated with the foreclosure. Curing restores you as if no default or acceleration had occurred.
It may be used not more than once in any two consecutive calendar years.
There is no post-sale statutory right of redemption.
Deficiency
Where the net proceeds are insufficient, the court may enter a personal decree against the mortgagor for the residue, which has the effect of a judgment at law. The District has no fair-value statute.
Between the 30-day election and the five-business-day cure, DC gives you two hard deadlines and considerable protection between them. Both require opening the mail.
A note on what this page is
This is general information about how the foreclosure process works in this state. It is not legal advice and it is not a prediction about your loan. Timelines vary by lender, by servicer, by county and by the specifics of your file, and the law changes. If you are facing foreclosure, a conversation with an attorney licensed in your state about your particular situation is time well spent — and a confidential review with us costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.
Understand your value. Know your equity. Review your options.
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