This article updates a similarly titled article published in the Oct. 21, 2019, edition of the New Jersey Law Journal.
By way of quick recap, “clogging” is shorthand for a principle rooted in ancient English common law that a borrower who secures a loan with a mortgage on real estate holds an inviolable right to redeem the property from the lender by repaying the debt up until the point when that right is legally foreclosed through proper judicial procedures. Stratagems such as a lender obtaining a “deed in lieu of foreclosure” or an option to purchase the property from the borrower at the time of loan origination are generally considered void in the lender’s hands as a “clog” on the borrower’s equitable right of redemption.
