How Foreclosure Works in Alaska

Both. If a deed of trust gives the trustee a power of sale, the trustee may sell the property outside court after giving the required notices. A lender may instead bring a court action to foreclose, and the court may order the property sold. Once the deed of trust is foreclosed in court, or the lender sues on the note and gets a judgment, the nonjudicial sale remedy is no longer available.

For a nonjudicial sale, the trustee must record a notice of default at least 30 days after the default and at least 90 days before the sale. It must state the default, the amount owed, the trustee's election to sell, the sale date, time and place, and how the default can be cured. Within 10 days after recording, the trustee must mail a copy by certified mail (or deliver it personally) to the borrower, successors in interest, anyone in physical possession of the property, and junior lienholders. Public notice of the sale must also be given in the manner the law requires for execution sales.

The notice of default may be recorded no sooner than 30 days after the default, and the sale must be at least 90 days after the notice is recorded. A sale may be postponed, but not for more than 12 months without new notice of sale.

Yes, for payment defaults in a nonjudicial foreclosure. At any time before the sale date (including a postponed date), the borrower may cure and stop the sale by paying the amount in default (not the principal that would not be due without the default) plus the attorney and other foreclosure fees and costs actually incurred. If a notice of default has been recorded and cured two or more times before under the same deed of trust, the trustee may refuse payment and continue the sale. In a court foreclosure, if the amount then due plus court costs is paid to the clerk before judgment, the case is dismissed.