Chapter 13 Bankruptcy for Joint - Question...

[booker81]

DH and I are filing Chapter 13 right now, and are in the middle of the process. I have a question about the debt counseling, but I'd rather not just throw it out there. If anyone who's filed jointly in the last couple years (since all the laws changed), could you please PM me?

Thanks

 

[fuzziebutt]

 

[ranchhand]

It's a hard row to hoe, hope you can find the right path and best of luck.








(this is an acceptable way to bump a thread)

 

[booker81]

Well, we got it figured out, and we "passed" the pre-filing course.

The last bit of paperwork goes in tomorrow, and we'll be waiting for the petition and filing.

It's weird too - we make more money now than ever, and have no credit cards, but we can't keep fighting with the bank from the setback we had two years ago when DH was unemployed and I wasn't working, and can't pay back the house loan I got stuck with from my exhusband (he refused to pay and I gave up trying to get him to).

Got the foreclosure notice on the door today on our house. That's not going to happen - we aren't moving (and I called the lawyer, he said we are still good and will be filed before the sheriff sale).

We've done our best, but it's time to lay it down and let the lawyers fight with these people. Doing 13 will be difficult the next few years, but we've pared our budget down a lot, and we should be able to hunker down and get the repayments done in the three years, and come out with everything being caught up.

It will be nice to no longer have the stress of constantly sending paperwork in to the bank or creditor, and having them tell us one thing and mail us another, or just insult us when we talk to them.

It's scary but at the same time, it's relieving.

 

[redhen]

Are you 100% SURE that you can file on a house thats already be foreclosed on??
I'm leary of that being true....

Best wishes in everything!

 

[booker81]

As long as it's filed before the auction date. I called the attorney to be sure, and his words were "We have more than enough time. Once they auction however, it's very difficult, but we're not even going to go there. We can file right up to the day before the auction, and they will place a stay on it." I think if we were to file Chapter 7 (which we can't, we make too much), the bank could petition to lift the stay and then foreclose the house since they would be able to prove we couldn't afford it. Since we are doing 13 however, we will be making a regular mortgage payment per month, plus a portion of the back owed, and the court won't lift the automatic stay on the house. Once we file, it's up to the court to determine if we keep the house. Based on our current income (which the bank refuses to acknowledge mine in the negotiation), we are more than capable of paying all of our current obligations, and can pay a fair portion of debts off through the Chapter 13.

Funny thing about the idiots with the bank - we've been in constant contact with them. There has been no notice about this each time we talk to them. I just come home to the posting on the door, you'd think we would have gotten a letter or something that showed their decision to foreclose or something, but no. Of course, according to the posting, DH is unmarried, and they've already sold the mortgage to a different group.

I'm sending the notice to the lawyer today so he can call them and start the whole thing with working out their payments under the Chapter 13. We've already paid the lawyer so it's just faxing some more paperwork in today, and our part is all done, the rest is to the trustee to deal with them, especially the idiots of Flagstar.

 

[Dunkopf]

Are you going to be able to reduce your mortgage payment?

 

[booker81]

We don't really need to reduce it, we just need to get on track with it. Flagstar refuses monthly mortgage payments - that was the modification we wanted to do - to just allow us to make our monthly payments, with the amount we were behind to be tacked onto the end of the mortgage. Alternatively, we wanted to make double payments each month, until everything was caught up. Either one we could afford.

Of course, it took them months to decide if they would allow it each time, and after months had passed, they would decide they needed more paperwork, which we would send in. Then more months, with them telling us not to pay until it went through the mitigation process, and stupidly, we listened. It's been round and round like this for two years (we didn't not pay for two years - we did say screw it and send in multiple month payments when we could talk them into accepting them). The initial problem was when DH was laid off for months and I wasn't working. Now, he's back to steady work and OT, and I'm making quite a bit in a very stable job.

Moral learned - if the bank tells you not to make a payment while they are in the process of a modification, don't listen to them. Heck, on a general rule, don't listen to them. They're too whacked. Just throw money at them and hope they don't mess things up too bad. Of course, once this whole thing is done in three years, and we've worked our credit up, we are most definately going to try an refinance somewhere else.

I'm still bitter that I have a good job and they won't even take in consideration my income for the modification. I just can't believe they're that stupid. Let the lawyer have them.