Hello everybody!
I am reviewing Pennsylvania foreclosure law after my attorney asked me to provide the total amount I have spent on foreclosure-related work, and I would value practical input from those with real execution experience.
My attorney confirmed that she follows the Fannie Mae allowable fee framework (she shared the schedule with me) and that, in practice, firms bill fees and costs after they are incurred. That framework appears operationally standard, but I am trying to reconcile it with Pennsylvania statutory limitations on recoverability.
Under Pennsylvania law:
My factual situation:
I have already incurred and paid the following foreclosure-related expenses:
Pre-complaint / pre-foreclosure stage:
- Title search / title review (legal due diligence)
- Demand letter + statutory mailing
- Compliance / document preparation (FDCPA-type itemization work)
Post-complaint / litigation stage:
- Filing fee (complaint)
- Attorney fee tied to complaint / initiation of foreclosure action
Additionally, I have separate legal fees paid to foreclosure counsel after the case progressed further.
At my attorney’s request, I initially provided the full aggregated amount of all foreclosure-related payments as part of the payoff / damages discussion.
The issue I am now reassessing:
Educational materials in the NPN space often state that “all reasonable foreclosure-related expenses” can be recovered from the borrower or sale proceeds.
However, based on the statutes above, Pennsylvania appears materially more restrictive — especially regarding:
- pre-complaint work,
- notice-period activity,
and potentially certain categories of legal preparation.
My question:
From a practical, real-world standpoint in Pennsylvania:
Do you typically:
- Provide the full cost stack to counsel and let them internally determine what is recoverable,
- Proactively split your ledger into: court-recoverable vs. internal / non-recoverable costs,
- Or strictly limit what goes into the court-facing damages schedule from the outset?
Specifically, how do you treat:
- early title review / legal due diligence,
- demand letters and mailing,
- compliance / document prep,
vs. clearly post-complaint items like filing fees and litigation-stage attorney work?
Core concern:
I want to avoid overstating recoverable amounts in a Pennsylvania foreclosure context, while also not leaving legitimate recoverable costs on the table.
Any experience-based guidance on how you structure this in practice would be highly valuable.
Thank you.