Philadelphia County Foreclosure Resources

Under Act 91 the lender must send a notice at least 30 days before filing the foreclosure complaint. It tells you that you may qualify for HEMAP and that you must meet with a HUD-certified housing counselor within 33 days of the notice date. That 33-day window is a real deadline — missing it can cost you HEMAP eligibility, and it runs long before any sheriff's sale is scheduled.

The Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program is administered by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. It makes loans to bring a delinquent mortgage current and can pay monthly mortgage costs for up to 24 months when the default is due to circumstances beyond your control. You must apply before the sheriff's sale. HEMAP is Pennsylvania-specific and has no equivalent in most other states.

Foreclosures in Philadelphia County are heard at the Court of Common Pleas, in Philadelphia County. The lender files a complaint with the Prothonotary's civil division at 1301 Market St, and the case proceeds before a judge. There is no non-judicial foreclosure track in Pennsylvania — every residential foreclosure goes through the court.

No. Pennsylvania does not provide a statutory right of redemption once the sheriff's sale is confirmed and the deed delivered. Your opportunities are all before the sale: responding to the Act 91 notice, applying for HEMAP, engaging any county conciliation or diversion program, and defending the foreclosure on its merits in court.

Yes, but only in a separate action brought within six months of delivery of the sheriff's deed. Pennsylvania also recognizes a fair-value defense, which limits the deficiency to the judgment amount minus the property's fair market value rather than the auction price. Where a property sold well below market at the sheriff's sale, that defense can substantially reduce the exposure.

Yes — Philadelphia County and the City of Philadelphia are coterminous, one government covering the same geography. There are no separate municipalities inside the county. This page is organized as the county-level foreclosure resource page: the courthouse, the Prothonotary's filing office, the sheriff's sale process, and the statewide Pennsylvania rules that apply here. The separate city page serves city-intent visitors. Both are accurate and both link through to the same legal content.

Philadelphia operates the Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program, which requires a conciliation conference before a foreclosure can proceed — one of the oldest such programs in the country. In practice it means a Philadelphia case reaches a mandatory conference early, and appearing at it with a housing counselor is one of the few procedural points a homeowner can use to change the case's trajectory. Save Your Home Philly connects homeowners to HUD-certified counselors.