Pennsylvania's Act 6 and Act 91 Notices: The Homeowner Protections That Delay Investor Possession for Months
The Bid You Won in December—The Keys You Got in June
An investor purchased a single-family property at the Allegheny County Sheriff's Sale in early December for $87,500. The property had been through the entire foreclosure process, the sale was conducted, and the investor was the high bidder. Standard assumption: file the deed, wait for confirmation, begin the eviction process, take possession within 60 days.
Five months later, the investor was still waiting.
The former homeowner had filed a motion to set aside the sale, arguing that the lender never properly served the Act 6 notice. The court agreed to hold an evidentiary hearing. Meanwhile, the investor was paying insurance on a property they couldn't access, watching a harsh Pittsburgh winter cause frozen pipes they couldn't repair, and fielding calls from their hard money lender asking why the rehab timeline had slipped by half a year.
This isn't an edge case in Pennsylvania—it's the structural reality of foreclosure investing in a state with some of the most robust pre-foreclosure homeowner protections in the country. Act 6 and Act 91 aren't just procedural checkboxes for lenders. They're litigation landmines that can blow up your possession timeline months after the gavel falls.
The Legal Framework: Two Acts, Two Notice Requirements, One Extended Timeline
Pennsylvania's homeowner protection scheme in residential mortgage foreclosures operates through two separate but interrelated statutes: the Loan Interest and Protection Law (Act 6 of 1974), codified at 41 P.S. § 101 et seq., and the Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (Act 91 of 1983), codified at 35 P.S. § 1680.401c et seq.
These statutes impose mandatory pre-foreclosure notice requirements on lenders before they can file a mortgage foreclosure complaint—and crucially, before any sheriff's sale can proceed. The requirements are not optional, not waivable by the borrower, and not curable after the fact by the lender.
Act 6: The 30-Day Face-to-Face Meeting Notice
Under 41 P.S. § 403(a), before a residential mortgage lender may accelerate the maturity of any residential mortgage obligation or commence foreclosure proceedings, the lender must give the borrower written notice of the intention to foreclose. This notice must:
- Be sent at least 30 days before the lender takes any foreclosure action
- Inform the borrower of their right to cure the default
- Provide a statement of the amount needed to cure
- Offer the borrower an opportunity for a face-to-face meeting with the lender to discuss alternatives to foreclosure
The face-to-face meeting requirement isn't ceremonial. The statute requires the lender to actually arrange a meeting—or demonstrate that they made reasonable efforts to do so and the borrower failed to respond—before proceeding. A lender that skips this step, or sends a deficient notice, has not satisfied the statutory prerequisite for foreclosure.
Act 91: The Housing Counseling Agency Notice
Act 91 adds a separate, independent 30-day notice requirement under 35 P.S. § 1680.403c. Before filing a foreclosure complaint on a residential mortgage, the lender must provide written notice to the homeowner that:
- The homeowner may be eligible for emergency mortgage assistance through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA)
- The homeowner has 30 days to meet with a consumer credit counseling agency approved by PHFA
- No foreclosure action may be filed during this 30-day period
- The notice includes contact information for approved counseling agencies in the homeowner's geographic area
The Act 91 notice must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, and by first-class mail to the mortgaged premises. The 30-day waiting period runs from the date of mailing, not receipt.
The Cumulative Effect
Here's what matters for investors: these two notice requirements are sequential, not concurrent. A lender must satisfy Act 6's 30-day notice period, then separately satisfy Act 91's 30-day notice period, before filing the foreclosure complaint. In practice, this adds a minimum of 60 days to the pre-complaint timeline—and that's assuming the lender does everything correctly on the first attempt.
When lenders don't—when they mail to the wrong address, fail to include required content, or can't prove proper service—the entire foreclosure timeline resets. And the borrower can raise these deficiencies at any time up to and including after the sheriff's sale.
Why Standard Title Searches Miss These Issues
A conventional title search examines recorded instruments: deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments, and the documents filed in the foreclosure action itself. What it doesn't examine—and cannot examine—is whether the unrecorded procedural prerequisites to foreclosure were satisfied.
The Act 6 notice is not recorded. The Act 91 notice is not recorded. The lender's proof of mailing, the certified mail receipts, the documentation of face-to-face meeting attempts—none of these appear in the chain of title or the court docket in any standardized way.
When you pull the docket for a Pennsylvania foreclosure, you'll typically see:
- The complaint in mortgage foreclosure
- A certificate of compliance attached to the complaint (where the lender's attorney certifies that Act 6 and Act 91 requirements were met)
- The progression of the case through judgment and sale
That certificate of compliance looks authoritative. It's a sworn statement by counsel. But it's an assertion, not proof. And borrowers' attorneys have become increasingly sophisticated at challenging those certificates—requesting discovery on the underlying notices, deposing lender representatives about service procedures, and moving to set aside sales based on demonstrated deficiencies.
The Post-Sale Challenge: When Your Winning Bid Becomes a Contested Judgment
Under Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 3132, a sheriff's sale must be confirmed by the court. Confirmation is not automatic. The court schedules a confirmation hearing, and any party in interest—including the former homeowner—can file objections.
Pa.R.C.P. 3132 specifically provides that the court shall confirm the sale unless the sale was conducted "contrary to law." And conducting a foreclosure without proper Act 6 and Act 91 compliance is, by definition, contrary to law.
The confirmation process typically occurs on the first Monday following the sheriff's sale at which no exceptions are filed. In Philadelphia County, this schedule is relatively predictable. In smaller counties with less frequent sale schedules, confirmation can take weeks. But when exceptions are filed, the timeline extends dramatically.
A homeowner filing a motion to set aside sale based on Act 6/Act 91 deficiencies triggers:
- A briefing schedule for the motion (typically 30-60 days)
- Potentially, an evidentiary hearing with witness testimony
- A decision from the court
- Possible appeal to the Superior Court if the homeowner loses
During this entire period, you cannot take possession. You cannot begin renovations. You often cannot even inspect the interior, because the homeowner retains occupancy rights pending resolution.
The Dollar Impact: A Case Study in Carrying Costs
Consider a realistic scenario in Montgomery County. An investor wins a bid at $145,000 for a property with an ARV of $235,000. Their rehab budget is $45,000, targeting a six-month flip cycle with total holding costs of $12,000 (insurance, taxes, hard money interest, utilities).
The former homeowner's attorney files exceptions to sale confirmation, alleging the lender failed to provide the required Act 91 notice 30 days before filing the complaint. The lender's file shows the notice was mailed 28 days before filing—two days short.
The court schedules a hearing for 75 days out. The hearing results in a decision 30 days after that. The court finds the sale was conducted contrary to law and sets it aside.
The lender must now re-serve Act 91 notice, wait 30 days, file an amended proceeding, and schedule a new sale. The next available sheriff's sale date is four months away.
Total delay from original purchase: approximately 8-9 months. But the investor's situation is worse than mere delay—they may not even have standing to participate in the new sale, depending on how the court structured its order. Their $145,000 (plus any earnest money or deposit) is tied up, earning nothing, while their hard money lender is charging 12% annually.
Actual cost of the Act 6/Act 91 deficiency to this investor: approximately $18,000 in carrying costs on money that's doing nothing, plus the opportunity cost of capital that could have been deployed elsewhere.
Red Flags in the Foreclosure Docket
While the actual Act 6 and Act 91 notices aren't recorded, experienced Pennsylvania foreclosure investors learn to read dockets for warning signs:
Unusually short timeline from complaint to judgment: Pennsylvania's foreclosure process, properly conducted, takes a minimum of several months. A case that moved from complaint to default judgment to sale scheduling in under 90 days should raise questions about whether all procedural steps were properly followed.
Verification of compliance by lender's counsel rather than attached exhibits: Some careful lender's counsel attach copies of the notices and certified mail receipts to the complaint. Others simply include a certification. The latter approach provides less documentation and more room for challenge.
Prior motions to dismiss or for judgment on the pleadings by the homeowner: If the homeowner previously raised Act 6/Act 91 issues and lost, check whether the basis for the court's ruling actually resolved the compliance question or dodged it on procedural grounds.
Bankruptcy filings in the case history: A homeowner who filed bankruptcy during the foreclosure may have grounds to argue that post-bankruptcy notice requirements weren't properly followed, resetting the timeline again.
Multiple amended complaints: A lender that had to amend its complaint may have done so to cure notice deficiencies raised by the homeowner or identified internally.
What TitlePin Would Have Shown
TitlePin's pre-auction reports for Pennsylvania properties include analysis of the foreclosure docket that goes beyond the recorded instruments. For residential mortgage foreclosures, the report flags:
- Whether the certificate of compliance references both Act 6 and Act 91
- The timeline from complaint filing to judgment, with alerts for unusually accelerated proceedings
- Any pending or previously filed exceptions to sale confirmation
- Related bankruptcy filings that may have created additional notice requirements
- Prior motions by the defendant challenging foreclosure procedure
The report doesn't tell you definitively whether the lender complied—that determination requires review of documents that aren't public record. But it tells you whether the case shows risk factors that warrant deeper investigation before you bid, rather than discovering the problem when confirmation is denied.
For the Allegheny County investor who waited five months, a TitlePin report would have shown that the original foreclosure complaint was filed 32 days after the listed date of the Act 91 notice—a suspiciously tight timeline that should have prompted inquiry into whether the mailing was properly conducted. Armed with that flag, the investor could have investigated further or adjusted their bid to account for confirmation risk.
Eviction After Confirmation: The Act 6 Complications Continue
Even after your sale is confirmed, Act 6 continues to shape your possession timeline. Pennsylvania law provides that a sheriff's sale purchaser takes title free and clear of the mortgage lien but does not automatically extinguish the former homeowner's possessory rights.
To remove an occupant who was the former homeowner (not a tenant), you must file an action in ejectment or obtain a writ of possession through the court that conducted the sale. The former homeowner has the right to respond and raise defenses—including, potentially, collateral attacks on the validity of the foreclosure itself if they can show newly discovered evidence of Act 6/Act 91 violations.
More practically, Pennsylvania courts are generally reluctant to rush former homeowners out of their primary residences in the dead of winter. Informal judicial practices in some counties mean that possession motions filed in December may not be heard until March, regardless of their legal merit.
The Municipal Court Complication in Philadelphia
Philadelphia investors face an additional procedural layer. Philadelphia Municipal Court has jurisdiction over landlord-tenant matters, including certain possession actions. But when the occupant is a former homeowner rather than a tenant, the jurisdictional question becomes murkier.
Some investors have found themselves bounced between Municipal Court (which declines jurisdiction because there's no landlord-tenant relationship) and the Court of Common Pleas (which views the matter as more appropriately handled in Municipal Court). These jurisdictional disputes add weeks or months to possession timelines.
In Philadelphia specifically, the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program adds another timeline consideration. This court-supervised program mandates conciliation conferences between lenders and homeowners before foreclosure sales can proceed. Cases that went through diversion may have more complete documentation of Act 6/Act 91 compliance—but they also took longer to reach sale, meaning you're purchasing in an older case where documentation may be harder to locate.
The PHFA Wildcard: Actual Mortgage Assistance
The entire purpose of Act 91 is to connect homeowners with the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency's emergency mortgage assistance program. Under 35 P.S. § 1680.402c, PHFA can provide loans to eligible homeowners to cure mortgage defaults—and when PHFA approves assistance, the foreclosure must be stayed.
A homeowner who was properly notified, met with a housing counselor, and applied for PHFA assistance before the sale may have a pending application that could still result in a post-sale stay. PHFA assistance is not common—the program has limited funding and strict eligibility requirements—but it exists, and when approved, it creates a statutory obstacle to your possession that no amount of legal maneuvering can overcome.
The TitlePin report includes notation of any PHFA-related filings in the court record, allowing you to assess whether emergency assistance is a live issue in the case.
Key Takeaways
Act 6 (41 P.S. § 403) and Act 91 (35 P.S. § 1680.403c) impose sequential 30-day notice requirements before Pennsylvania foreclosure complaints can be filed—any deficiency in these notices can void the sale, even after you've won the bid
These notice documents are not recorded in the chain of title; standard title searches rely on lender certifications that can be challenged in court, potentially months after the sale
Post-sale challenges to Act 6/Act 91 compliance can delay confirmation by 3-9 months, during which you cannot take possession, begin repairs, or in some cases even access the property
Red flags in the foreclosure docket include unusually short complaint-to-judgment timelines, prior motions by the defendant, and cases with multiple amended complaints
Budget for confirmation risk on Pennsylvania residential foreclosures: build at least 120 days of additional carrying costs into your deal analysis for any property where the foreclosure docket shows procedural irregularities
Sources
- Pennsylvania Loan Interest and Protection Law (Act 6 of 1974), 41 P.S. § 101 et seq.
- Pennsylvania Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (Act 91 of 1983), 35 P.S. § 1680.401c et seq.
- Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure 3132 (Confirmation of Sale)
- Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program Administrative Order
- Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program Guidelines
- Beneficial Consumer Discount Co. v. Vukman, 621 A.2d 685 (Pa. Super. 1993) (regarding Act 6 notice requirements)
- U.S. Bank N.A. v. Mallory, 982 A.2d 986 (Pa. Super. 2009) (regarding Act 91 compliance as condition precedent to foreclosure)