Oklahoma Foreclosure Eviction Laws

Following an Oklahoma foreclosure, the new owner of the property or the mortgage lender needs to follow the state statutes for removing the homeowners from the property. The legal process used for transferring possession is called eviction, and a foreclosure eviction is similar to the eviction process used in a landlord-tenant relationship.

The majority of Oklahoma foreclosures are judicial, according to Realty Trac. A lender goes through the court system to get a judicial foreclosure. If a lender writes a mortgage contract with clauses that give the lender right of sale if the borrower defaults, he can pursue a non-judicial foreclosure instead. The entire foreclosure takes about 180 days in Oklahoma.

If the lender uses the judicial foreclosure option, the homeowner gets 20 days to respond to the foreclosure notice before the court goes further with the eviction. The Oklahoma homeowner may be able to reach an agreement with the lender in this time, although the lender does not need to agree to any payment arrangements once the foreclosure process has started. A foreclosure sale date is set once this 20-day period concludes.

The Oklahoma homeowner cannot be forced from his home after the foreclosure sale through any means except a legal eviction. The Oklahoma eviction process requires the lender to send a notice to the homeowner. The notice informs the homeowner that he must leave the property or the lender will start the eviction process. If the homeowner ignores the notice or decides to try to stay in the home, eviction paperwork is filed in court. The sheriff comes to the property after the eviction hearing to conduct the physical eviction of the homeowners and any property.

If an Oklahoma tenant is renting a property that gets foreclosed, he is protected under the "Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009." This act stops the lease from being cut short because of a foreclosure. The new owners of the home, whether it is the lender or a private party, become the new landlords. If the Oklahoma tenant does not have a lease that has a definite end date, such as a month-to-month tenant, he cannot be evicted from the property before a 90-day notice.