Nevada Foreclosure Laws: Process, Timeline and Your Rights

Both. Nevada law gives the trustee of a deed of trust a power of sale that can be used out of court after a default (nonjudicial foreclosure). A lender can also bring a single court action to recover a debt secured by a mortgage or other lien on real estate, in which the court may order the property sold by the sheriff (judicial foreclosure).

For a residential mortgage loan, at least 30 days after the default and at least 30 days before recording a notice of default (or filing a court foreclosure), the servicer must mail the borrower a notice with an account summary, the amount needed to cure, foreclosure prevention alternatives, and contact information for HUD-approved counseling agencies. For a trustee's sale, a notice of default and election to sell must be recorded in each county where the property is located and mailed by registered or certified mail to the borrower and the record owner. For owner-occupied homes, the notice must include information about the state Foreclosure Mediation Program, a lender contact with authority to negotiate a loan modification, and at least one local HUD-approved housing counseling agency. After the waiting period, the trustee must record a notice of sale, deliver or mail it by registered or certified mail to the borrower, post it in a public place in the county for 20 days in a row, and publish it once a week for 3 consecutive weeks in a local newspaper.

For a trustee's sale: the pre-foreclosure notice must be mailed at least 30 days before the notice of default is recorded; the borrower then has 35 days after the notice of default is recorded and mailed to cure; and the notice of sale cannot be given until at least 3 months after the notice of default is recorded. The notice of sale must be posted for 20 successive days and published once a week for 3 consecutive weeks before the sale. For owner-occupied homes, a borrower who timely asks for mediation stops further steps toward a sale until mediation is completed. If a borrower submits an application for a foreclosure prevention alternative, the servicer generally may not record a notice of default or notice of sale, or hold a sale, while the application is pending.

Yes. In a trustee's sale, the borrower, the record owner, or a junior lienholder has 35 days (counted from the day after the notice of default is recorded and mailed) to make good the missed payments or performance; if the deficiency and the costs and fees of the notice are paid within that time, the loan may not be accelerated. In a court foreclosure based on missed payments, the default may be cured up to 5 business days before the court-ordered sale date by paying the past-due amount plus costs, fees and expenses, and the sale may then not occur.

There is no right of redemption after a trustee's sale: the sale vests title in the buyer without equity or right of redemption. After a court-ordered sheriff's sale (which is conducted like an execution sale), the judgment debtor or a redemptioner may redeem within 1 year after the sale by paying the purchase price plus 1% per month, and any taxes, assessments, or prior-lien payments the buyer made, with interest.

Allowed in many cases, with limits. The lender must apply to the court within 6 months after the foreclosure sale, and a hearing is required. The judgment cannot exceed the lesser of (a) the debt minus the property's fair market value at the time of sale, or (b) the debt minus the sale price (with an additional limit when the right to the judgment was bought from the original holder and the property was the debtor's principal residence). A financial institution may not get a deficiency judgment on a single-family home if the owner used the loan to buy the home, lived in it continuously as a principal residence, and never refinanced.

Yes. Nevada's Foreclosure Mediation Program applies to trustee's sales of owner-occupied housing. The notice of default must include information on how to take part. Within 30 days after being served with the notice of default, the homeowner may petition the district court for mediation, pay a $25 filing fee plus a share of the mediation fee, and serve the petition on the lender and Home Means Nevada, Inc., which administers the program. The court then assigns a mediator, and no further action may be taken toward a sale until mediation is completed. The homeowner may instead waive mediation on the form provided. A trustee cannot sell without recording a certificate from Home Means Nevada stating that mediation was completed or not required.

After a residential foreclosure (a home of up to four units sold by court order or trustee's sale), a tenant or subtenant living there who is not named on the mortgage or deed may be evicted only after receiving a notice of the change of ownership and the end of a notice period: at least 60 days for month-to-month or longer periodic tenancies and tenancies at will (for periodic tenancies shorter than a month, the number of days in the period). During that period the new owner takes over the former landlord's rights and duties under the lease, and the notice must tell the tenant where to send rent. No record of eviction may be entered for a tenant who moves out during the notice period, and the tenant may leave early without obligation to the new owner.

Yes. A homeowners or condominium association has a lien for assessments, fines and certain charges, and it may foreclose its lien by sale. Part of the lien (up to 9 months of regular budget-based assessments, certain maintenance charges, and capped collection costs) has priority even over a first mortgage. Before selling, the association must mail a notice of delinquent assessment, wait at least 30 days, record a notice of default and election to sell (with a bold warning that the owner could lose the home), and give the owner 90 days after recording to pay. An association generally may not foreclose based only on fines or penalties for violating its rules unless the violation threatens health, safety or welfare or involves certain other conditions, and it may not proceed while the unit is in the state foreclosure mediation program unless conditions are met.

Yes. At least 10 days before residential property is conveyed, the seller must complete a disclosure form about the property's condition and serve it on the buyer or buyer's agent; the seller's agent may not fill it out for the seller. The form's format and contents are set by regulation of the Real Estate Division of the Department of Business and Industry and cover electrical, heating, cooling, plumbing and sewer systems and other conditions affecting the property's use or value. If the seller discovers a new or worse defect before closing, the seller must tell the buyer in writing; if the seller will not repair it, the buyer may cancel or close accepting the defect. Buyers cannot waive these requirements. Foreclosure sales, sales between co-owners, spouses or close relatives, and first sales of new homes built by licensed contractors are exempt.

When property taxes go unpaid, the county treasurer holds the property in trust under a certificate for 2 years after the first Monday in June of the year the certificate is dated (1 year for property determined to be abandoned), unless it is redeemed sooner. To redeem, the owner pays the delinquent taxes, penalties and costs, plus later taxes and costs, with interest at 10% a year assessed monthly (unless another statute provides otherwise). If not redeemed in time, title vests in the county.

Home Means Nevada, Inc., a state-affiliated nonprofit, administers Nevada's Foreclosure Mediation Program and offers program information, forms, and an online portal. By law, the notice of default for an owner-occupied home must include contact information for at least one local HUD-approved housing counseling agency, and the earlier pre-foreclosure notice must list one or more HUD-approved counseling agencies.