foreclosure
Definition
A legal process by which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral.
The institutional practice of repossessing property, often associated with systemic financial crises or administrative mismanagement like the infamous 'robo-signing' scandals.
Examples
If banks handle their paperwork with the same grace they used during the 2010 crisis, your foreclosure notice might just be delivered by a sentient rubber stamp.
Buying a fixer-upper from a foreclosure list is a lot like betting on a bank's internal audit—optimistic, likely to end in a mess, and probably best avoided if you enjoy having your paperwork in order.
The bank insisted the foreclosure was a simple administrative error, proving once again that some institutions have a very creative definition of customer service.