Don't want to lose house. Please help!

[Pamela]

I am in quicksand and I feel as if I am sinking slowly. I filed a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in 2004 and my house was a part of the plan and starting in March of 2007 I missed two payments. My lender has entered a motion to lift my automatic stay. The court has given me 30 days to get current with the payments in my plan. The problem with that is I don't have that kind of money and neither does my family. And even worse than that, I am diabled. I am allowed under the rules of Social Security to work a little as long as I don't make over $900.00. My problem is that by the time I find a part-time job, the stay on my home will be lifted. So, I am trying to find some other options I could take.

Does anyone know what I could do at this point? The court order is that if I don't get current with my payment, the lender is free to go ahead with the foreclosure procedures. I was think about letting the order lift so I could explore options like refinancing, partial-claim or a foreclosure buyout. But, I am afraid the lender won't work with me once the stay is lifted. Could anyone give me some advice?

P.S. My lawyer isn't very helpful. I guess he sees me as a lost case.

[BKOnce]

If your house is located in Metro or near big city/working area, you could spare two rooms for rent out to people ($300-$500 each depending or your local demand/price), then use that money to pay monthly mortgage.. well.. just to survive ...at least until you find other permanent solution to your finance problem I guess.

[Pamela]

1

[StevieD]

We experienced a similar problem about a year ago. Our lawyer was able to create a payment plan w/ the mortgage company where we paid the arrears over a 4 month period. This amount was paid along with our regular monthly payment. Maybe this or a similar agreement may work for you.

After the agreement was complete, the "Order to Lift Stay" was denied. We were warned by our lawyer to not let this happen again as the mortgage company did not have to request a second "Order to Lift Stay".

[Sunshine]

Something similar happened to us shortly after filing Ch. 13. We could no longer make our payments due to my husband losing his job. Our attorney advised us at that time that if/when my husband got back to work, we would amend the plan to increase our payment slightly to make up the missed payments. (In reality, this probably would not have worked as our payment was high to begin with). I'm just saying that you may be able to amend your plan . . .check with your attorney.

Why did you miss payments though? I'm just asking because if you truly cannnot afford the Ch. 13 payment, maybe you should be in a Ch. 7. If there is any likelihood that you will be unable to make future payments, you may end up in this situation again with few options.

I hope you find a solution and are able to keep your house.

[BKTango]

Honestly if you are disabled and on SSI, you might want to think twice about even being in the chapter 13 and possibly consider converting to a chapter 7 and letting the house go if you cannot get current with the mortgage by then. I know SSI doesn't pay much out and with an extra $900 a month in income it's really hard to just keep up with day to day living let alone trying to make a plan payment. If you became disabled and placed on SSI AFTER your original filing, you need to go in an amend your plan to make it more feasable to your income now. I just don't see how someone on SSI was even placed in a 5 year chapter 13 to begin with.