A Bankruptcy Attorney Can Provide Your With Legal Advice For Your Home If You Are Filing Bankruptcy
As a California bankruptcy attorney, we regularly get calls from new clients who are facing foreclosure and looking to see if bankruptcy can help save their house. Your house is typically your biggest asset, and more importantly, it is your home. This is the place where your children come home to after school, family dinners are had, and memories are made. It is a place where you painted the kitchen, picked out your new furniture, and built bookshelves for the kids’ bedroom. A home is where life is lived, and wanting to keep it is completely understandable. We understand that your home is more than numbers, that your home is a place of memories, and we will do what we can to fight for your interest and prevent a potential foreclosure.
It is important to call our office as soon as possible, so we have advance notice to fight a foreclosure. You should keep in mind that once a bankruptcy has been filed, whether a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13, there is an immediate stay on any debt collection action. This is in your best interest because it will immediately stop a foreclosure from proceeding, just like it will prevent any repossessions or harassing debt collector calls. What happens after that is up to the court as you go through the bankruptcy process.
Chapter 7
In a Chapter 7, you will be filing a liquidation bankruptcy. This is the type of bankruptcy that people file when they are looking to have their debts completely wiped out or eliminated. You should keep in mind that if you file a Chapter 7, you may still be able to keep your home, but it depends on how much equity you have in it. If you are over the threshold, you may be forced to sell your home in order to access capital to pay off some or all of your debts. However, as a bankruptcy attorney, we have found that few people have the level of equity required to force the sale of their home. On the other hand, if you are behind on mortgage payments, you can either file a Chapter 13 or try to negotiate with your mortgage company among other options.
Chapter 13
If you file for a Chapter 13, you are not looking to wipe out your debts entirely but to create a payment plan that allows you to pay your creditors a portion of what is owed over a set period of time. Very often, people enter into a five-year agreement where payments are made on a monthly basis to the trustee and then money is allocated among creditors based on a set plan. In this situation, you can also keep your home. If you owe mortgage arrears, you can add it to the payment plan to catch back up on your mortgage loan. Remember, any asset you own that is security for a debt has the ability to be foreclosed on or repossessed. This makes the process of your bankruptcy incredibly important. There is no guarantee that a lender will agree to all your terms, and that is why hiring a bankruptcy attorney is in your best interest.
If you are facing foreclosure or you have fallen significantly behind on your mortgage, call our office and schedule an appointment today. As a bankruptcy attorney, we can help protect your rights, your home, and your family’s financial future.