Acceleration Clause
Definition of "Acceleration Clause"
Acceleration Clause is a contractual provision inserted in a mortgage, a bond, a deed of trust or other credit vehicles, that gives the lender the right to demand repayment of the entire loan balance. Usually, such a clause becomes operational when there has been a default in payments of interest or principal or both.
When the acceleration clause is activated, the entire principal sum is called in and becomes due and payable. This fact would precipitate a foreclosure in the case of real estate, or bankruptcy action if the monies were not paid at the time of the call.
Acceleration clauses are created to protect the lender from borrower default and other risks. It prevents/deals with payment delinquencies, but can, on rare occasions, be structured for other occurrences too.
Let's see an acceleration clause in effect scenario:
Home Seller Barbara makes a Land Contract with Home Buyer Paul. He started paying correctly and living in Barbara's former house. He has paid already $30,000 of its $100,000 contract. At the end of it, he'll be the owner of the house. BUT: he didn't pay for the last 3 months, so the acceleration clause kicked in, Barbara filed for a land contract forfeiture and now Paul has to pay the rest of the $70,000 with one swing if he wants to still be able to get the house. Or else, they're done.
Accelerate your home buying/home selling process: find a real estate agent
Popular Real Estate Terms
Section of the Internal Revenue Code relating to depreciation. Capital improvements made to real property are depreciable. ...
Residence units owned by the government and available to low income families at a nominal cost. ...
Appraisal by summation is an Alias for Replacement Cost A.K.A. Cost Approach, which is one of the approaches an Appraiser can go through in order to assign a Market Value to a ...
Rental agreement directly between the landlord and tenant. If the tenant then rents it out to another, it is referred to as a sublease. The relationship takes the following form: ...
Structure built into the water from the land providing a facility for boats to tie up. A dock will often provide utility access ...
Expenditure to make a specific security or real estate transaction. Real estate transaction costs include survey costs, mortgage points and origination fees, recording fees, state transfer ...
Changing property ownership. An example is the sale of a home to another. ...
Individual who will receive an inheritance upon the death of another. The proceeds of an insurance policy may be in a lump sum annuity. Real estate also passes to the beneficiary. ...
The term developer’s profit is the actual profit generated by a developer’s project after the costs of the development have been covered. This profit can come from the sale of ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.