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
Also called interim financing. A mortgage that provides the funds necessary for the building or construction of a real estate project. The project can be a residential subdivision, a ...
Real estate business owned by one person having all the rights and obligations. ...
The units are used as commercial offices. The purchaser of an office condominium owns the title to the individual office unit and not to the property. Maintenance fees are assessed to each ...
Situation in which very few prospective buyers of real estate are rejected by lenders. This may be due to ample money supply, lower interest rates, and/or relaxed credit standards. See also ...
Landowner's legal right to the water found on his property. For example, there might be a stream of water adjacent to the land. The water might be used for irrigation or other purposes. ...
Agreement to exchange real estate upon specific terms. ...
A mortgage requiring a substantial down payment. It is usually only available to those having good credit, and has fixed monthly payments for the life of the loan. It usually has a 30 year ...
Real rate of interest on a loan. It is the coupon rate divided by the net proceeds of the loan. Assume Sharon took out a $1,000,000, on year, 10% discounted loan to buy real estate. The ...
Same as term annuity: Equal period payments or receipts. Examples of an annuity are annual rental receipts from a real estate investment and cash dividends from a real estate firm's ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.