The COVID-related impact upon Indiana sheriff's sales has had a few layers:
1. The first involved Governor Holcomb's moratorium on residential foreclosure activity. Click here for more on that subject. That ended July 31, 2020, and some sheriff’s sales occurred in August. For example, after cancelling its monthly sales from March through July, the Marion County (Indianapolis) civil sheriff held a sale on August 21st. Click here for more information on Marion County sales.
2. The second layer surrounded the federal mandate. Despite the expiration of the state suspension, there still is a moratorium on sales of (and, in fact, foreclosure actions involving) FHA-insured mortgages. This freeze extends to year-end. Click here for a press release and here for my 4/6/20 post about the CARES Act.
3. The third is that neither the federal nor the state orders impacted commercial (business) foreclosures or sales. Nevertheless, it does not appear that any commercial foreclosure sales occurred this Spring or early Summer. I could be wrong, but as a practical matter, my understanding is that sheriff’s sales simply stopped, even for commercial real estate.
4. The fourth and more subtle layer of COVID's impact upon Indiana sheriff’s sales relates, not to economic relief, but to safety and social distancing. (This might explain why no commercial sales happened.) As I’ve written here previously: local rules, customs, and practices control county sheriff’s sales. Thus, there is a certain degree of latitude that each county has, or is taking, with respect to whether to proceed with sales during the pandemic. A quick survey of the websites of SRI and Lieberman, two private companies that hold sheriff’s sales for select counties, shows that several sheriff’s offices in Indiana still are not having sales, despite the termination of the state and federal moratoria. My understanding is that these continued delays are based upon public health reasons and/or a county sheriff's interpretation of local social distincing guidelines.
The upshot is to contact the county sheriff’s office, either by phone or via the internet, to determine exactly what’s going on with your particular case as the COVID situation continues to unfold.
__________
I represent parties in connection with foreclosure cases and sheriff’s sales. If you need assistance with a similar matter, please call me at 317-639-6151 or email me at [email protected]. Also, don’t forget that you can follow me on Twitter @JohnDWaller or on LinkedIn, or you can subscribe to posts via RSS or email as noted on my home page.
