Heloc (second mortgage) filed judgement

[4bkstuff]

Our second mortgage company in WA state.....BECU (a Home Equity Line of Credit of about 80K) filed lawsuit and won a judgement against us. We recieved the warning and letter that confirmed that won the lawsuit amost 2 months ago. The letter stated they may file to garnish wages - but we have not heard anything else. We are hoping to put off filing CH 13 as long as possible (although really no good reason to wait...except that we kept waiting to try to get BoA to renogotiate our first mortgage....no luck).

Couple of questions. First how likely is it that the Credit Union will actually file to garnish wages and how soon? We would REALLY like to stay in our home but did not qualify for the HAMP and BoA has sent us info about short sale in lieu of foreclosure. We are not sure which way to go. Anyone else have any luck one way or another with Boa?
Thank you for any responses.

[dneil]

I had judgments against me prior to filing. They first went to our checking account. We were smart and removed any moneys we had in there.They never did get the opportunity to garnish my husbands wages because we filed before they could. Once you file, they can not garnish... or the attorney's stop the garnishments.

[4bkstuff]

Do they have to give notice prior to taking $$ out of checking or garnishing wages? BTW we do not bank with the credit union.

[Charlie777]

Unless WA State is different, they can file garnishment with your employer, and take funds from bank accounts by serving the employer and banks without first notifying you.

I'm not sure what you gain doing a short sale with BOA. The big problem in getting short sales approved is when there are second mortgages, and your second already has a judgement that won't go away unless you file. A short sale has the same effect on your ability to get a new mortgage as a foreclosure. So I would consider moving forward before you go through all the hassles of having the judgement enforced on you.

[papie]

I would start consulting attorneys about filing Chapter 13 as soon as possible, if you haven't already. Holding out waiting for a mortgage company to modify a loan is a big mistake right now for a lot of people.....me included...I waited over a year and would have been much better off filing Chapter 13 earlier than I did.

Some of the wage garnishment orders come 6 months after a judgement and some come as little as one month. It depends on the creditor.

If they have went as far to obtain a judgement, you can pretty much bet they're going to obtain a garnishment.