Stop the foreclosure, keep the equity.
Arrears paid out, proceedings ended, and time bought — before a court process consumes the equity you spent years building. BC and Alberta, judgment-free.
Foreclosure is slower than the fear suggests — it moves through courts, in months — and that gap between how fast it feels and how fast it is holds all of your options. Every week earlier you act, the fix is cheaper: a caught-up arrears file costs less than a B-side refinance, which costs less than a private payout, which costs vastly less than watching legal fees and an auction-grade sale price strip the equity out of a forced sale. We've seen every version of how people get here. The only mistake left to avoid is waiting.
Every stage has a move.
Missed payments caught up or refinanced out before the lawyers get involved — the cheapest stage to fix.
A foreclosure petition or statement of claim isn't the end — the court process takes time, and that time is your window.
When the lender wants out entirely, a new equity-based mortgage pays them off and resets the clock.
The other forced-sale routes — tax and strata arrears cleared in the same structure.
Collections and judgments swept up with the arrears, so the title comes out clean.
If selling is the right answer, a bridge lets you sell on your timeline — not the court's, and not at auction pricing.
Rescue, stabilize, rebuild.
The emergency instrument: it pays out the arrears (or the whole mortgage), the proceedings end because there's nothing left to enforce, and you get runway to stabilize. Days matter more than points of rate here.
When the letters just started, a B-side refinance can clear the arrears and reset the payment before private pricing is ever needed — one more reason to call at the first missed payment, not the fourth.
A rescue without a rebuild plan is just postponement. The full route back is mapped on our bad-credit page — this page is about surviving the emergency with your equity intact.
Rates and leverage are typical ranges for illustration — last reviewed July 2026 — and rescue files price on equity, stage, and timeline. Foreclosure procedure is a legal process: for where your file stands legally, consult your lawyer — we work alongside them constantly. Related: the road back to prime and CRA debt payouts.
Files like yours.
The questions people are afraid to ask.
Can foreclosure actually be stopped?+
Usually, if there's equity and you move while there's still time. Foreclosure in BC and Alberta runs through a court process — it takes months, not days, and at almost any point before the end, paying out the arrears or the mortgage itself stops it. Equity-based lenders fund exactly that payout, with the amount built into the new mortgage's advance.
How fast can a rescue fund?+
Days to a couple of weeks with an appraisal in hand — private rescue files are underwritten on the property and the payout figure, not your income or credit, so there's no committee to wait for. The earlier in the process you call, the more options exist and the less the fix costs.
My credit is destroyed and my income dropped — can I still qualify?+
For the rescue itself, yes — it's equity-based, so the property qualifies rather than you. That's the entire design: the events that caused the arrears are the same events that ruin bank applications, so the emergency instrument can't depend on either.
What happens to my equity in a forced sale?+
It gets eaten from both ends: legal and enforcement costs stack onto the debt, while a court-ordered or distressed sale typically realizes less than an orderly one. That spread — costs up, price down — is your equity disappearing, and it's exactly what acting early protects.
What if keeping the home isn't realistic?+
Then the goal changes from rescue to exit value: a bridge stops the proceedings and buys the time to sell properly — prepared, marketed, on your schedule — instead of through a court process. Leaving with your equity is a fundamentally different outcome than losing it, even when the address changes either way.
The CRA and property taxes are part of the problem too — can it all be fixed at once?+
Usually, yes — tax arrears, CRA debt, judgments, and mortgage arrears can be swept into one structure so the title comes out clean and there's a single payment going forward. Lien-stage CRA files have their own sequencing; see our CRA debt page for that detail.
What happens after the rescue?+
The rebuild: 6–24 months of stability on the rescue mortgage, then a refinance to Alternative and eventually prime pricing as the credit heals — the dated staircase on our bad-credit page. The rescue is the tourniquet; the plan back is the point.
Getting help? Have these ready.
Bring the scary envelope, unopened if that's how it is — dates on those documents decide the strategy, and nothing in them will be news to us.
- Whatever the lender or their lawyer sent — demand letter, petition, statement of claim; dates matter
- Current mortgage statement — balance, arrears amount, and who holds it
- Property tax and strata status
- A realistic sense of the home's value — we can order an appraisal fast
- Any judgments or collections on title
- What happened — one honest paragraph; no judgment, it shapes the fix
- Your preferred outcome: keep the home, or exit with the equity
Every week earlier is equity saved. Call now.
One confidential conversation: where the file stands, what each option costs, and what we'd do in your position. No judgment — just the map out.