The Summons

The purpose of a Summons is to inform the person being sued that a lawsuit is pending against them and an Answer to the lawsuit must be filed if they seek to contest or assert their rights related to the lawsuit. Each defendant in a foreclosure lawsuit who is named must be served by a process server in New York. Homeowners who are named as defendants in foreclosure lawsuits must be served with a Summons. Also, individuals having liens on the house or creditors holding judgments filed against the house also must be served with a Summons. This gives these other individuals notice that this lawsuit may affect their rights to collect on their liens and judgments against the house. The Summons specifically provides notice to the homeowners with regard to how much time they have to respond to the initiation of the lawsuit. The Summons states if the individual is served personally, they have twenty days to respond, and if served by any other means other than personal service, they have thirty days to respond to the lawsuit. This sets the time period by which homeowners who are served with the Summons and Complaint in foreclosure cases must respond to it by filing a written Answer, acknowledged before a notary public, with the Court and with the attorney for the bank. If the homeowner fails to respond in a timely manner, their failure to submit an Answer will be considered a default. The default means the homeowner is not challenging the allegations in the lawsuit.