Can I Get a New Apartment Lease During Bankruptcy?
You sure can! It may be a bit more difficult to find a place that will rent to you than it otherwise would be, but be patient. Depending on the rental agency, you may be required to pay a higher security deposit or even be required to have a co-signer. It really depends on the rental agency.
Upside Down or Under Water on Your Home? Bankruptcy May Help!
With the decline in the housing market many people find they are “upside down” or “under water” on their home. In other words, do you owe more for the house than what it is worth? If that is your situation and you have two or more mortgages, you may find that Chapter 13 bankruptcy is an option you have never considered.
Let’s look at an example where Chapter 13 bankruptcy may help you:
You have a home with a fair market value of $150,000. Three years ago the house was worth $200,000.
You have a first mortgage on the home for $160,000 and a second mortgage or HELOC for $40,000. In other words, you owe more on the first mortgage than the house is worth.
You can easily make the first mortgage but the second mortgage is more than you can afford.
You know it will be several years before the house is valued at $200,000 again.
As a result, you are stuck making two or more mortgage payments on the home and it isn’t worth it.
You are contemplating a short-sale which leaves you without a home and a “ding” on your credit or you are considering walking away from the home and letting the mortgage company foreclose.
If this is your situation, you should consider a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. With the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you may be able to “strip” or eliminate the second lien/mortgage. Within the bankruptcy, you are able to eliminate the lien on the house as long as you complete the Chapter 13 bankruptcy within the three to five years required by the bankruptcy laws. The number of years you must be in the bankruptcy will depend on your specific situation. Let’s use the example above to see how it might work for you.
Your first mortgage is $1,100 per month.
You have $10,000 in credit card debt, a $2,000 personal loan and $750 in medical bills.
You owe $40,000 on the second mortgage that may be eliminated in your Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
You meet with the bankruptcy attorney and determine that you qualify for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and it appears you are eligible to strip the second lien in the bankruptcy.
Your Chapter 13 plan payments are estimated at $1,300 – $1,500 including your first mortgage and other debts including the second mortgage.
Once the bankruptcy is filed, your attorney will file a lawsuit or adversary proceeding against the mortgage company or they may be able to simply file a motion to strip the lien. Each bankruptcy court has their own requirements, so you should speak with your bankruptcy attorney to determine what must be completed in your case.
Once this process (either adversary proceeding or motion) is completed, the bankruptcy court will issue a judgment or order that voids the second lien on the house as long as you complete and receive a discharge in your Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Once the bankruptcy is discharged and completed, three to five years after you file, you will resume payments on your first mortgage but the second mortgage and the other debts listed in your bankruptcy are eliminated and you will not be responsible for making payments on these debts in the future.
As a result, if you decide to sell your house in the future, you will only be required to pay off the first mortgage. The second mortgage is no longer a factor.
This is obviously a simplified approach, so you should seek the advice of a bankruptcy attorney to see if stripping your second or third mortgage or HELOC is an option for you. You are thinking this must be too good to be true otherwise someone would have mentioned this to you before! It really is fairly simple. This is just one way a Chapter 13 bankruptcy may assist you in keeping your home when you are upside down or under water.
How Do I Know If There Is A Lawsuit Or Judgment Against Me?
We get this question often! The answer for the most part is quite simple. If you have been sued, unless you have changed your address and have not updated it through the post office, you likely have received notices that were being sued. To understand the process of a lawsuit better, check out the blog post we wrote about whether bankruptcy can help you if you have a judgment.
Should you be a person who has moved and slipped through the cracks, finding out if judgments are against you is still a quite simple matter. You will need to go to the Clerk of Court for the county that you are (or in the case of moving, were in) and have them do a judgment search on you. They can pull up the person/creditor who sued you, date it was entered into the court system, amount you owed at the time of the lawsuit, what the daily interest is and the amount you currently owe. For example, if you lived in Union County, North Carolina for the past 9 years and you just now moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, your judgments are likely still registered in Union County. Therefore you will need to check there first. (But checking in your current county of residence isn’t going to hurt anything either!)
From that point, you will need to determine if the suit has attached to any real property you may own. For example, let’s say for our purposes, you have lived in Mecklenburg County for the past 10 years and never moved, you own your home by yourself and there is a judgment against you. Once that judgment is placed against you, it will automatically attach itself to your home. If you have previously been sued , you will need to discuss that with your attorney to make sure the proper steps are taken to remove that judgment from your credit, especially if there is a lien involved.
If you have a lawsuit or judgment against you then you may want to contact a Charlotte bankruptcy lawyer, Greensboro bankruptcy attorney or Winston-Salem bankruptcy lawyer to learn more about your rights.
