- The claim review costs you nothing and commits you to nothing
- Filing, notary and certified-copy costs are outlaid, never billed to you
- The completion fee is agreed in writing before anyone starts
- If nothing is recovered, you owe nothing and no bill follows
The steps at a glance
The claim review
You give us the property address, roughly when the sale happened, and the name that was on the deed. We search the records and say whether a surplus exists, which office is holding it, and who is entitled to it. That costs you nothing.
Confirming who may claim
Title as of the sale date decides this. We look for co-owners, a former spouse, an owner who has died, a trust, and any junior lien that attached after the foreclosed loan.
The written agreement
Before work starts you get an agreement naming the completion fee and stating that it comes out of the recovered surplus. Nothing is asked of your pocket, then or later.
Paperwork and proof
Notarized affidavits, ownership and identity verifications, signed authorizations, and certified copies of whatever the office holding the money wants to see.
Wills, trusts and probate
Where the owner has died we locate and verify the will or the trust and open the probate route your state allows. Those court costs are outlaid too, and where a state requires a licensed attorney for the filing, one makes it.
Filing the claim
The filing goes in inside your state's window, to the trustee, the county office or the court, with the proof attached in the order that office asks for.
Follow-up and competing claims
We chase the holder on a schedule, answer requests for more documents, and respond to a lienholder or another claimant who says the money is theirs.
Payment
The holder releases the funds, the completion fee is taken at that point, and the remainder is yours. Where nothing is recovered, nothing is owed.
Two questions bring people to this page: whether there is money in their name, and what it will cost to find out. The second answer is the same wherever we work. Nothing comes out of your pocket, and the completion fee is paid from the surplus after the money has been recovered. What follows is everything that happens between those two points.
What the first review answers
Three questions, in this order.
- Was there a surplus at all. A sale leaves one only when the winning bid beat the debt, the costs of the sale and the junior liens that attached after the foreclosed loan. The figures come from the deed recorded after the sale, from the case file where a court ran the foreclosure, or from the county’s published tax sale results.
- Which office has it now. That is a trustee after a non-judicial sale, a clerk’s registry where the funds were paid into a case, a county treasurer or tax collector where unpaid taxes forced the sale, or your state’s unclaimed property program once the money has sat long enough.
- Who is entitled to it. Title as it stood at the sale settles that, so we look for co-owners, a former spouse, an owner who has died, a trust, and the liens that rank ahead of the owner.
You get those answers even when the answer is that nothing is worth claiming, and hearing them puts you under no obligation at all.
What you pay, and when
| What it costs | Who pays it | When |
|---|---|---|
| The records search and the claim review | The organization | Before anything is signed |
| Certified copies, notary and recording charges | The organization, outlaid | As the claim is built |
| Court or county filing fees | The organization, outlaid | At filing |
| Probate costs where an estate needs a case | The organization, outlaid | While the case runs |
| A licensed attorney where a state requires one | Paid from the recovery, not by you | At the filing |
| The completion fee | Taken from the recovered surplus | After the money is released |
| Nothing was recovered | Nobody | You owe nothing, and no invoice follows |
The completion fee is a figure in your agreement before work starts, so you decide with it in front of you. It is never collected up front and never asked for in cash. Where your state requires a licensed attorney for a court or probate filing, a licensed attorney handles it, and you still pay nothing out of pocket. In California, claims by a former owner-occupant of a home sold at a trustee’s sale are handled by a licensed California attorney, because California law reserves that work for the owner’s attorney (Cal. Civ. Code §2945.4).
Who does what
What our specialists carry:
- The search for the money and the office holding it
- Signed authorizations, ownership and identity verifications, affidavits and notarizations
- Locating and verifying a will or a trust, and the probate filings an estate turns out to need
- The claim bundle each office demands, and the court filings that go with it
- The chasing, the resubmissions and the answers to competing claimants
What we need from you:
- Reading anything before you sign it
- The documents already in your possession, however disordered
- The names on title, including relatives, a former spouse and anyone who has died
- A mailing address and a phone number that still reach you
That last one matters more than it sounds. Almost everything in this work arrives by post, and claims have gone cold because a forwarding order ran out.
Where a claim gets stuck
Most delays come from a short list. A junior lienholder says it stands ahead of you (liens and competing claims). The owner died and nobody holds authority to sign yet (probate assistance). Two relatives filed different versions of the family. The holder gave up and deposited the money with a court. The surplus sat untouched long enough to be turned over to a state program (unclaimed property recovery). A bankruptcy was open on the day of the sale. Two people share a name in the public records. None of these ends a claim. Each one adds time, and each is a reason to start before the window closes rather than after.
Deadline: Your state sets the claim window, and some run only a few weeks from the day a notice was posted to an address you may not use any more. A review takes one conversation and a records search. Do that first, then decide who files.
What we will not do
Our specialists prepare and file the claim and deal with the offices that hold the money. Where a filing has to be made by a licensed attorney in your state, a licensed attorney makes it. We do not promise an amount, an outcome or a date, because the office holding the money and the court decide all three. You will not be asked for money up front, for a deed, for a power of attorney covering everything, or for a signature on a form with blanks still in it.
A simple claim can move quickly, and how to qualify sets out what we would need to move it. What we add is the finding, the paperwork done the way each office wants it, heirs and probate, an answer for competing liens, and the costs carried until the money moves.
Have these ready before the review
- The property address, and the date of the sale if you know it
- Every letter about the foreclosure, the tax sale or the money, envelopes included
- The recorded deed, or anything showing how title was held
- Photo identification for each person who will sign
- A death certificate, will or trust if the owner has died
- Any lien, judgment or bankruptcy paperwork you know about
- The address and phone number that reach you now
Questions about how our specialists help
Nothing, and it puts you under no obligation. You get the answer even when the answer is that there is no money left to claim, along with the figures we used to reach it.
Sometimes an authorization, because many offices will not discuss a file with anyone but the owner. The agreement that names the completion fee comes before the claim work begins, and the figure is in front of you before you sign.
You owe nothing. Whatever was outlaid stays with the organization, no invoice follows, and you are free to take what we found to anyone else.
The holder and the court set that pace, not us. A clean claim moves faster than one needing a probate, a lien answered or a hearing, and nobody can honestly promise a date.
When the money is with one office, the title is simple and you are on the deed, the claim can move quickly. Tell us that and we confirm the office, the deadline and the form, then move it without the delays that catch a first-timer.
You sign it. Our specialists prepare it, attach the proof and file it with the office holding the money, and nobody is asked to hand over their right to the funds.