what is a zombie foreclosure 
a zombie foreclosure occurs when a home is left vacant by homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgage and either incorrectly believes they have to immediately move out after receiving a foreclosure notice or choose to abandon the property for other reasons more commonly the former scenario where the owner mistakenly believes that the foreclosing lender is now responsible for the property even though the homeowners still hold title to the property for example let s say a homeowner defaults on their mortgage and vacates their property and the lender doesn t complete the foreclosure process so the title is still held by the original homeowner the property becomes unoccupied for an extended time and the lawn driveway etc is not taken care of as a result the state of the property falls into disrepair creating safety concerns and resulting in an appearance that may lower property values in the surrounding community 