Bankruptcy Lawyer: Hiring One Does Not Mean You Will Lose Your House

Jul 20
07:15

2010

Abraham Avotina

Abraham Avotina

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Some options to help you keep your home in a foreclosure including filing chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy with the guidance of a bankruptcy attorney.

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The mortgage crisis of 2007 came with some long after shocks and many home owners are still struggling to keep their homes today. If you have already tried a loan forbearance,Bankruptcy Lawyer: Hiring One Does Not Mean You Will Lose Your House Articles and a short sale of your home your only options left are deed in lieu of foreclosure which means you give the home back to your mortgage lender and vacate the property or declare bankruptcy with a bankruptcy lawyer and attempt to slow down the foreclosure or stop it entirely.

Before the bank will start the process of foreclosure you generally have to be at least 3 to 4 payments behind. The bank must then notify you of their intent to foreclose and the process begins. It doesn’t happen overnight but there are time constraints on what you can do to stave off foreclosure so you should consult a bankruptcy lawyer if you are considering bankruptcy sooner, rather than later.

When you file for Chapter 7 the court issues an Order for Relief and all creditors are automatically stopped from contacting you or attempting to collect on the debt. This also puts your foreclosure on hold unless the process is too far along. Since most foreclosures can take three months after the initial home owner notification, filing Chapter 7 two months later won’t buy you much time or delay the process very long. In order to effectively use Chapter 7 to buy time you need to file it when you are notified of the impending foreclosure. Again this can be complicated and a bankruptcy lawyer specialist should advise you if this plan is right for your particular situation.

Another option if you want to try and keep your home and not just buy time is to file chapter 13 bankruptcy so you can attempt to pay back the back payment amounts with a payment plan that you submit to the court. This will only be successful though if you can now keep with the current payments and pay on your payment plan on time. If your financial situation hasn’t changed you may be in worst shape to attempt a Chapter 13 than you were when you started. So again, get sound legal advice before filing Chapter 13 in an attempt to keep your home.

Chapter 7 laws now require those who want to file to undergo credit counseling within 180 days of filing for bankruptcy and the court must have a detailed list of all your assets and debts as well as all sources of income, before you can be granted bankruptcy relief. Any debts you do not include won’t be counted as part of your chapter 7 and these creditors can legally continue to collect on your debt, so having the help of a trained professional can help you make sure you have included all of your debts, even the ones you may have forgotten about.

Since these can be complicated options, consult a bankruptcy lawyer before you take any action to ensure the choice you make is the best one for you.