New Hampshire Foreclosure Laws: Process, Timeline and Your Rights

Both. A lender holding a mortgage with a power of sale may foreclose out of court by giving the required notices and selling the property under the power, instead of bringing a court suit and decree of sale. A court case can also end in a decree that the property be sold under the power.

For a sale under a power of sale, notice must be published once a week for 3 successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the town or county, with the first publication at least 20 days before the sale. A copy must be served on the borrower (mortgagor) or sent by registered or certified mail to the last known address at least 45 days before the sale for a residential mortgage (25 days for other mortgages), and to recorded lienholders at least 21 days before the sale. For owner-occupied homes of 4 or fewer units, the notice to the borrower must include the lender's agent for service of process and the New Hampshire Banking Department's toll-free foreclosure information hotline. Every notice to the borrower must state that the borrower has the right to petition the superior court to stop (enjoin) the scheduled sale; if the borrower does not file and serve such a petition before the sale, later challenges to the validity of the foreclosure are barred.

The statute sets minimum notice periods before a power-of-sale foreclosure: at least 45 days' mailed or served notice to the borrower for a residential mortgage (25 days otherwise), at least 21 days' notice to recorded lienholders, and newspaper publication for 3 successive weeks starting at least 20 days before the sale. After the sale, the foreclosure deed, notice and affidavit must be recorded within 60 days; title passes to the buyer when they are recorded.

Before foreclosure, a borrower may redeem mortgaged land after a default by paying (or legally tendering) everything the mortgage secures plus damages and costs caused by the default. Once the foreclosure deed and affidavit are recorded, title passes to the buyer free of interests that do not have priority over the mortgage.

A buyer at a mortgage foreclosure sale who wants possession must use the state's possessory (eviction) action, which requires a written notice to quit, to remove a lessee, occupant or former owner. For "restricted" rental property under the eviction law, a tenancy may be ended only for the reasons listed in the statute (such as nonpayment, lease violations, or other good cause).

For condominiums, the unit owners' association has a lien for unpaid assessments once it records a sworn memorandum of lien within 6 months after the assessment was due. The lien is ahead of other liens except real estate taxes, liens recorded before the declaration, and first mortgages held by institutional lenders, but up to 6 months of regular monthly assessments (plus collection costs, including reasonable attorney's fees) can have priority over the first mortgage if the association gives the required notices. A suit to enforce the lien must be brought within 6 years after the memorandum is recorded. After 30 days' written notice, an association may also cut off a delinquent unit's common privileges and association-paid services until assessments are paid.

New Hampshire requires specific written disclosures rather than one general form. Before or while an offer is prepared for a one-to-four family home, the seller must disclose in writing information about any private water supply, private sewage disposal system, insulation, whether the property is in a federally designated flood hazard zone, and any residential heating-oil underground storage tank; the buyer signs to acknowledge receipt. Before a purchase contract is signed for property with a building, the seller must also disclose water supply and sewage system information, and the seller or agent must give the buyer the statutory notification about radon, arsenic, lead, PFAS and flood risk.

When a town or city places a real estate tax lien, anyone with a legal interest in the land may redeem by paying the tax collector, at any time before the collector issues a deed, the amount of the lien with interest at 14% a year, plus redemption costs and the costs of notifying mortgagees. Partial payments are allowed. The collector issues a tax deed to the lienholder for land not redeemed after 2 years from the date the lien was executed.

New Hampshire Housing (the state housing finance agency) lists foreclosure resources for homeowners, including the New Hampshire Banking Department homeowner hotline at 1-800-437-5991, links to HUD housing counselors, 2-1-1, and 995Hope, and the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline (1-888-468-4454) for mortgage fraud or rescue scams. State law requires foreclosure notices on owner-occupied homes to include the Banking Department's toll-free foreclosure information hotline.