Your Bankruptcy Attorney Can Help You Save Your Home

If you are facing an impending foreclosure, and you have no way out of your financial mess, it may be time to consider hiring a bankruptcy attorney. By going bankrupt, you may be able to stop foreclosure and save your home, but using a lawyer is your best bet in determining if this is really going to work for you.

The first thing you and your lawyer will need to determine is whether or not your equity falls within the homestead exemption in your state. Most states have a homestead exemption, which protects a certain amount of money for your “family” home from being used to pay your creditors. If your home’s equity is less than your state’s homestead exemption, both Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcies may be able to help.

However, you will still have to be able to pay your mortgage loan. If the lender is starting foreclosure because you have missed multiple payments, you will have to work with the lender to make the payments current before you will be able to stop foreclosure. Filing will place a temporary hold on the foreclosure process, but once your bankruptcy has been processed and finalized, the lender will still have the right to foreclose if you are behind on payments.

One option that you may want to discuss with your bankruptcy attorney is filing Chapter 13. Chapter 13 is the repayment type of bankruptcy, and it allows you to enter into a repayment agreement with your creditors that stretches out your payments over a period of three to five years. During this time, as long as you keep up with your house payments as outlined in the repayment plan, you are protected from foreclosure.

Keep in mind that foreclosure is expensive for your lender. If there is a way for them to avoid the process while still getting what they are owed, they will probably try to pursue it. So, if you are considering Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 as an option for keeping your home, you may want to talk to your lender about it, because if you wait too far into the foreclosure process, you might not be able to save your home, even by going bankrupt. The courts and the filing process cannot force your lender to modify your loan and work with you to keep your home, so you have to be forward thinking throughout the process and seek legal counsel early.

Figuring out whether a bankruptcy is right for you can be a very confusing process. A bankruptcy attorney can be an invaluable resource to help you determine if you can, in fact, save your home by filing. These lawyers are experienced in cases of all shapes and sizes, and have likely helped homeowners in similar situations to the one you face. You can file without legal help, but this may not be the right option if you are trying to avoid foreclosure. By working with a lawyer, you can have the best possible advantage to saving your home.