Troubled homeowners soon may get a little more breathing room from Georgia lawmakers.

Two bills aimed at providing more opportunities to avoid foreclosure won overwhelming approval from the state Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 519 would increase the amount of notice foreclosed homeowners receive before their property is sold at auction to as much as 60 days. That's up from the current notice of 15 days.

The additional time will improve the prospects of homeowners working with credit counselors on a financial plan and negotiating with lenders over potential loan modifications.

Advocates for homeowners said the high tide of foreclosures in metro Atlanta means that loan modification requests and financial plans for making mortgage payments current often cannot be considered until the home has already been seized for resale.

Rick Floyd, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia, said the increased notice has his organization's full support.

SB 531, which would require a public record of a mortgage holder's name, also was approved by a wide margin.

Its proponents said the repeated sale of mortgages in the contemporary financial markets often robs foreclosed homeowners of the opportunity to establish new repayment terms with their lender. Instead, they must negotiate with third-party loan servicers, which have limited authority to alter loan terms or withdraw a property from foreclosure.

The disclosure would offer homeowners the possibility of negotiating terms with the firm that can approve changes in the loan's status or terms.

"Knowing who is foreclosing is extremely important for us in terms of helping homeowners save their homes," said Bill Brennan, director of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society's home defense program.

But Floyd said mortgage bankers would like to refine the bill in ways that would simplify the methods for tracking resales.

"We need a practical process in place that makes that easy to do," Floyd said.

The bills now go to the House for consideration during the remaining days of the General Assembly.

Though they do not represent an overhaul of Georgia's controversial foreclosure system, Brennan said, the bills would make improvements.

"We are seeing hundreds and hundreds of people trying to save their homes," he said. "We see these bills as making our process work better."