Preventing a foreclusure sale.

[Ineedhelp2]

We filed a Chapter 13 two days before the sale date of our house which was to be tomorrow.

I got a case number, so I figured everything was set.

Then when I came home today I bumped into two fellows who had been examining my property and they asked me about the sale.

I told them there would be no sale--that I just filed, and they seemed dubious, especially since they had just talked to the sale trustee and title company and said the sale was on.

I called my attorney's office, and it turns out they never got in touch with the sale trustee or title company, so I finally contacted the title company myself. I then heard back from my attorney's office with a copy of the filing notice, and they instructed me to be at the courthouse at sale time and present it to stop the sale.

I think I managed to stop the sale by contacting the title company, but I'm not going to take any chances.

What I don't understand is why my attorneys did not follow through with this and leave it to chance for me to find out that those in charge of the sale had not been notified, and if it had gone to sale--would it have counted, considering my case was filed in time?

[SinkingFast]

They will be "officially" notified, but it takes a few days to a week.

When you file, the Clerk of the Court mails notices to Creditors. Some Creditors, big ones like Chase, Citi, BoA, are notified Electronically. You'll get the same Notice in the mail your Creditors will get. And you'll all get Notice about the same time. Within a day or 2, allowing for mailing.

In your case, you filed in an "Emergency Situation". Your attny could have printed out a copy of the Petition and faxed or overnighted it to the Trustee or Referee of your Foreclosure Sale. Or your attny could just call them with you Case Number. Chances are, the Lender and the Law Firm handling the Foreclosure have access to PACER too.

If you want, you can print off a copy of your filing without having to go to your attny's office.

http://www.bankruptcyforum.com/showthread.php?t=1011

If you use a Debit Card when you Register, PACER will give you immediate access. Just go to your State and BK Filing District, enter your SSN, and your case will come up.

Maybe you can file a copy of your BK Petition with the Court House and stop the Sale dead in its tracks.

[Ineedhelp2]

I've got a document to stop the sale, if necessary, but here's the point:

I thought I was completely finished. The attorney gave me a case number. I thought it was up to them to notify everyone. They said nothing to me. I didn't have a concern until I found people on my property inspecting it, and then asking me about a sale.

If that had not happened, I would not have contacted my attorney and found out that were not able to get through to the title company and trustee in charge of the sale.

So tomorrow, they would not have known about the filing.

The question is if the sale had actually gone forward, would it have counted?

Shouldn't my attorney have been more on top of the situation?

[SinkingFast]

So tomorrow, they would not have known about the filing.

The question is if the sale had actually gone forward, would it have counted?

Shouldn't my attorney have been more on top of the situation?

You filed before the Sale was scheduled to take place. Therefore the Sale would be null and void.

Chances are, the Lender would have been the one to buy back the property anyway. Very, very rarely does anyone other than the Lender buy a property at a Foreclosure Auction. Generally speaking, there's too many legal hoops to jump thru for John Q. Average Public to bother with. Rarely an investor might buy a property. Rarely. Possibly the people you saw today were representatives of the Lender.

When someone buys a property at Foreclosure, the winning bidder is responsible for all back taxes, past due HOA dues, any repairs needed, etc. Lots of potential hidden costs. Some States have a minimum opening bid set at 2/3rds the Market Value of the property. Plus, many States have a Redemption period. A time period where you, the owner of record, can buy back the property. The deal is not said and done until the Redemption period expires. Just lots of hassles that make buying a Foreclosure unappealing to an average buyer.

I would think your attny should have contacted the Lender, the Trustee/Referee of the Sale, and maybe even the Court House. But if you've read much at all here, you'll know attnys often don't do all the things they should. And that's especially true of attnys who turn a high volume of BK's/month. Gotta juggle lots of clients.

Since you've filed Ch 13, you're gonna be dealing with BK for a while. For the next 36-60 months.

REMEMBER,.......... This is not your attny's BK, it's yours. It's not your attny's life, it's yours. Stay on top of things like you did today. Because it's not your attny who will get screwed, it's you.

[Ineedhelp2]

Thanks for your comments sinkingfast.

I believe my attorney's firm is competent, but you're right, I need to stay on top of this too, and this should serve as a lesson to keep it that way throughout the bankruptcy.

It does concern me, though, that my attorney wanted me to personally go to the courhouse and stop the sale myself. Again...I would never have thought to do that, and he only suggested it after I called about the men sizing up my property.


I am hoping circumstances will permit me to eventually come out from under chapter 13.

Do you have any rule of thumb or any averages as to how many creditors don't bother to do whatever filing they're supposed to do?

[chpxiii]

REMEMBER,.......... This is not your attny's BK, it's yours. It's not your attny's life, it's yours. Stay on top of things like you did today. Because it's not your attny who will get screwed, it's you.

If there is one thing I have learned in life that's you have to take care of #1. I've learned that the hard way. In jobs, in finances, in health, etc. No one will ever take care of your 'Self' like you can.

Ineedhelp2, good luck.

[SinkingFast]

Do you have any rule of thumb or any averages as to how many creditors don't bother to do whatever filing they're supposed to do?

There is no rhyme or reason to which Creditors file claims and which don't.

Some of the bigger Creditors,......... Chase, Citi, BoA,.......... May not file a claim. They'd rather write-off the debt than deal with small amounts dribbling in for years.

Little Mom and Pop type businesses generally do file claims. While your debt may not seem all that large to you, yours added with others may be a significant chunk of their bottom line.

Some posters here have had few Creditors file claims while others have close to if not 100%. You're really just gonna have to wait and see.

Sorry I can't be more helpful there.

[Ineedhelp2]

I went to the courhouse this morning with my document from the court in-hand, worried that I might be at the wrong place and the sale would happen somewhere else that I could not get to in time.

I then talked with one of the paralegals and she said it looked like I was at the right courthouse. She also said that with the new bankruptcy law, it is not necessarily enough to have filed before the sale, and does not necessarily make it null and void. She said they would have fought it if that had happened, but that it could have been a mess. One thing we did have going in our favor if that had happened was that everyone tried numerous times to contact the sale trustee, but it was almost impossible to get through to them.

At any rate, after walking around the grounds for almost an hour before the sale, I finally came back in and noticed a man in street clothes sitting on a bench, talking to someone about being there for a bankruptcy notice.

So I approached him and found out that my sale had been stopped afterall, and that he was there to read the notice of the bankruptcy and that the sale was indefinately postponed. I chatted with him for awhile about his work, and that he has to sometimes go to properties and give notices, and that he is not always welcome. He said he had a gun pulled on him once and that he was shot at once. So I don't envy his job.

I didn't expect to see just one person dressed casually. I thought there would be a team of lawyers in suits and clerks and buyers.

As it turned out, it was just him and me, and at the sale time, we went outside on the steps and he read out loud a brief statement that only I could hear, regarding my bankruptcy and the stay of the sale, and that was it.

So it ended up being no big deal, and not scary at all, but is sure was a relief when it was over.

[SinkingFast]

Good for you!!!

I am so glad you were able to bring the judicial wheels to a grinding halt!!

Our attny told us that generally the only person who shows at a Foreclosure Sale is a representative of the Lender.

At our Foreclosure Sale, the Sheriff went out onto the Court House steps to announce the Sale had been canceled. We'd gotten a "paid in full" offer 1 week before. There was actually a buyer there. Some guy who'd looked at our house and hoped to pick it up for a steal at the Sale on the Court House steps. Our Realtor said the buyer came by her office to see her afterward and he was really, really PO'd that he'd missed out.

[joepepper2005]

i'm in the smae boat but i have'nt filed yet, I wan to wait a little bit but I'm trying not to wait so long that it ends up like your case, is 2 days really enough time, I was thinking I might wait until 5 days before the sale so I can roll the one payment for june over until july and my fist payment would be july 15th

[Ineedhelp2]

Has anyone in forclosure received offers from buyers?

I got a number of them--not actual offers--but from people wanting to "help" me in my situation.

I have a lot of equity in my home, but the best one of them would have done would have been to give me about $25k after all is said and done.

I told him I was considering Chapter 13, but he told me they wouldn't let me keep my house if I did, which of course is bs.

I received numerous letters which I did not respond to.


One thing that i did not know--that they keep all the money in a foreclosure sale. I thought that if there was a sale that they would give me anything extra.

I am very grateful to my attorney for insisting I do not enter into a modification of my loan. We were down to the last two weeks before the sale, and I was nevous and wanted to buy some time, and the mortage company offered to stop the sale for $3,000, plus $100 extra a month.

I really wanted to do this, but my attorney said to go forward with the filing, and that ended up being a much better thing to do, sinc I did not have to come up with the $3k or the extra $100 a month, and I still would have had to deal with arrears on my second mortgage.