Highlights:

Judicial/ Non-Judicial Foreclosure: Only Judicial foreclosure

Right of Redemption / Deficiency Judgment: Yes / Yes

Timeline: 90 Days, Can vary depending on individual cases

Deed of Trust / Mortgage as Security Instruments: Mortgage

Judicial Foreclosure Process:   

The Judicial foreclosure process requires the lender to file a lawsuit against the borrower in a court of law, which provides the order for initiation of foreclosure proceedings of the Mortgaged property, if the defaulting of loan has been established. But this process is rarely followed in Maine as the Strict Foreclosure method is followed more often.

In the Strict foreclosure method, if the borrower breaks any terms mentioned in the mortgage document including not paying the monthly dues, the lender is authorized to take possession of the property and/or arrange for its sale.

But the borrower has a 3 month / 12 month redemption period based on whether the mortgage was dated after 1975 or prior to 1975, respectively. The lender basically takes possession of the property but they are required to wait till the redemption period gets completed. Even if the lender wants to sells it, they still need to file an initial suit and wait till the redemption period is over in order to conduct the foreclosure sale using the special procedures set fourth by the Court. During the redemption period, the borrower can pay up the dues along with interest to reclaim their property.

The lender may choose to file a deficiency judgment if the value offered by the highest bidder for the property is lower than the actual amount due to the lender. But, the lender can only claim the difference between the appraised value of the property (using fair market rates) and the actual amount due to them.