Is Your NY Foreclosure Time-Barred? FAPA & the 6-Year Statute of Limitations

Enter the date your mortgage was first accelerated in the gauge above to see roughly how long ago that was. A New York mortgage foreclosure has a six-year statute of limitations under CPLR 213(4). The clock generally starts when the lender accelerates the loan — declaring the entire balance immediately due, most often by filing an earlier foreclosure action or sending a written notice of acceleration.

What FAPA changed

For years, lenders would let a foreclosure sit, then voluntarily discontinue it or mail a "de-acceleration" letter to reset the six-year clock — a tactic the Court of Appeals allowed in Freedom Mortgage Corp. v. Engel (2021). The Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act, signed December 30, 2022, legislatively overruled Engel. It amended CPLR 213(4), 203, 205-a and RPAPL 1301 so that discontinuing a foreclosure or unilaterally revoking acceleration no longer stops or resets the statute of limitations, and it narrowed a lender's ability to refile a dismissed case.

It reaches back to older cases

FAPA states it applies to foreclosure actions pending when it took effect, which has revived time-barred defenses in many older cases. Lenders have challenged this retroactive reach on constitutional grounds and the appellate courts are still sorting it out, so treat it as a developing area. If your mortgage was accelerated more than six years ago, this is one of the strongest defenses in New York — raise it with a licensed attorney right away.