Most of the foreclosures in Massachusetts are non-judicial foreclosures thus most of the lenders will not have to file a lawsuit with the court for them to carry out a foreclosure. The first way that you can stop a foreclosure is by referring to the Massachusetts foreclosure prevention law to check whether your lender has complied with the expectations of the law; such as whether s/he acted in good faith by first offering you a chance to find an alternative to foreclosure; to check whether your foreclosure is lawful or necessary and whether he has served you with a 150 day cure notice and exemptions such as on you primary residence. If you are facing a foreclosure, it is not an inevitable event thus you can still stop it even if the lender has complied with law completely through the following means:
You can pay all your missed monthly payments which can be as late as five days to the scheduled foreclosure sale. If this is impossible to do so you can negotiate a repayment plan with your lender or request him/her to suspend the payments for a period of time. Alternatively, you can have a counselor discuss with your creditor on your behalf.
Dispute the foreclosure in court whether the foreclosure is judicial or non-judicial you can fight it in a court of law and among the defenses you may apply include: lender’s error(s), failure to follow the legal procedure or failure to observe the foreclosure statute limitation or unfair mortgage terms.
Short Sale; is an arrangement where once your lender has consented to your request allows you to sell the collateral property usually for an amount lower than what you owe to them and the lender will accept the proceeds as a payment for the debt. If your short sale makes sense the lender will accept as it will be time saving, less costly than a foreclosure.
Filing for bankruptcy; upon filing all efforts of lenders towards the collection of debts are stopped including foreclosure; bankruptcy can’t either stop foreclosure permanently or extend to you an extra time to be current in your obligations and the brighter side of it being the fact that it will help you get rid of you other debts thus increasing your ability to pay you mortgage more conveniently than in the past.
Deed in lieu; an arrangement where you surrender your home’s title voluntarily to the creditor and s/he accepts it as a full compensation of the outstanding debt but the downside of this option is that it has the same repercussions as a foreclosure; and the fact that lenders will agree to this offer. However, before the lender can consent to this he must be certain that your financial difficulties are genuine and that you fully understand how a deed in lieu works and that there exist no or just a few and manageable junior loans or liens that the lender has to pay off before taking the deed in lieu.
Sources:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/massachusetts-foreclosure-prevention-law.html
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/states/massachusetts/homeownership/foreclosure
http://www.masshousinginfo.org/resources/?folder_id=11012&sub_folder_id=111114
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/stop-foreclosure-proceedings-9144.html
http://www.hgtv.com/design/real-estate/5-ways-to-stop-the-foreclosure-process