I was scheduled to meet with my attorney today to discuss the motion for relief from stay my mortgage company has (erroneously) filed. Lucky for me it was the very nice woman associate I met with. Good gal.
So as not to make this too awfully lengthy, here is some good info she gave me.
1. Regarding the Motion for Relief from Stay filed by my mortgage company, she said that most mortgage companies are relatively disorganized - so motions for relief from stay due to (supposed) lack of payment is VERY COMMON. She said certain mortgage companies are notorious for doing these at the drop of the hat, with totally incorrect and/or outdated information (HomeEq was one she mentioned). She said that in most cases, the payments are up to date (or close to it) and the motions get dismissed once the mortgage company gets its act together and gets its records straight. She said it was a shame that this was how mortgage companies handle things - they are wasting their own money and legal resources instead of just getting themselves organized and making sure the left hand knows what the right is doing.
2. I asked her why the other attorney was unwilling to amend/modify my plan due to an increase in my mortgage payment. Basically, she told me that if they extend the plan, it somehow would jack up the interest I would end up paying on all the debts and would ultimately cost me MORE money in the long run.
3. In light of this, I asked her about a PT job. She told me that the general rule of thumb is that if you get an added expense (such as mortgage or something like new expensive medication you are required to take, schooling, etc.) they are fine with you taking a PT job to cover THAT expense only. In other words, my mortgage is supposed to go up $200. She said if I take a PT job, I should not be making $800 a month on it (ha ha, McD's doesn't pay that much anyway
) but only the $200 or so to take care of the extra expense. She said the courts are fine with this because you are "balancing out" an extra expense with extra income, not trying to live high on the hog while in BK. Of course, it still has to go through trustee and approval by court.
4. I asked her about doing a deed in lieu if I couldn't swing the mortgage and - surprisingly - she told me that there should be more factors than just the monthly payment in that decision. She said "do you like your neighborhood? Do you feel safe there? Do you have a house that suits your needs? Are you close to work/family?" She said she felt that making a lifestyle change simply to solve one economic problem was not always the best bet in the long run.
5. Finally, I had a claim/creditor I didn't recognize for over $7,000 show up. Surprise! This is from MBNA who wrote off that CC debt over four years ago. Somehow the debt has been sold around and whoever has it now (someone called D-Line LLC) got wind of the BK and got their claim in. I had quite a bad experience with a debt collector on that account a few years ago (another story, but an example is them calling my mother at 7:00 am one morning telling her I was in trouble, my phone wasn't working and she needed to get hold of me immediately to tell me to call them back...) and was told back then that the "debt collector" was not your true creditor and therefore, once the original creditor wrote off the debt, you might as well forget it and live with the consequences. Not so. The attorney told me that any creditor can come back, whether a debt was written off or not, and it was better it got in the plan now because if I had been discharged and then they decided to come after me (doubtful, in my mind, at this late date), they would still have a valid claim. Very strange.
Hope this info is helpful to someone else. I was not nervous or upset about this meeting but it was nice to hear from the attorney "you are doing a good job, you have made all your payments and are up to date, keep doing what you are doing."
So as not to make this too awfully lengthy, here is some good info she gave me.
1. Regarding the Motion for Relief from Stay filed by my mortgage company, she said that most mortgage companies are relatively disorganized - so motions for relief from stay due to (supposed) lack of payment is VERY COMMON. She said certain mortgage companies are notorious for doing these at the drop of the hat, with totally incorrect and/or outdated information (HomeEq was one she mentioned). She said that in most cases, the payments are up to date (or close to it) and the motions get dismissed once the mortgage company gets its act together and gets its records straight. She said it was a shame that this was how mortgage companies handle things - they are wasting their own money and legal resources instead of just getting themselves organized and making sure the left hand knows what the right is doing.
2. I asked her why the other attorney was unwilling to amend/modify my plan due to an increase in my mortgage payment. Basically, she told me that if they extend the plan, it somehow would jack up the interest I would end up paying on all the debts and would ultimately cost me MORE money in the long run.
3. In light of this, I asked her about a PT job. She told me that the general rule of thumb is that if you get an added expense (such as mortgage or something like new expensive medication you are required to take, schooling, etc.) they are fine with you taking a PT job to cover THAT expense only. In other words, my mortgage is supposed to go up $200. She said if I take a PT job, I should not be making $800 a month on it (ha ha, McD's doesn't pay that much anyway
) but only the $200 or so to take care of the extra expense. She said the courts are fine with this because you are "balancing out" an extra expense with extra income, not trying to live high on the hog while in BK. Of course, it still has to go through trustee and approval by court.4. I asked her about doing a deed in lieu if I couldn't swing the mortgage and - surprisingly - she told me that there should be more factors than just the monthly payment in that decision. She said "do you like your neighborhood? Do you feel safe there? Do you have a house that suits your needs? Are you close to work/family?" She said she felt that making a lifestyle change simply to solve one economic problem was not always the best bet in the long run.
5. Finally, I had a claim/creditor I didn't recognize for over $7,000 show up. Surprise! This is from MBNA who wrote off that CC debt over four years ago. Somehow the debt has been sold around and whoever has it now (someone called D-Line LLC) got wind of the BK and got their claim in. I had quite a bad experience with a debt collector on that account a few years ago (another story, but an example is them calling my mother at 7:00 am one morning telling her I was in trouble, my phone wasn't working and she needed to get hold of me immediately to tell me to call them back...) and was told back then that the "debt collector" was not your true creditor and therefore, once the original creditor wrote off the debt, you might as well forget it and live with the consequences. Not so. The attorney told me that any creditor can come back, whether a debt was written off or not, and it was better it got in the plan now because if I had been discharged and then they decided to come after me (doubtful, in my mind, at this late date), they would still have a valid claim. Very strange.
Hope this info is helpful to someone else. I was not nervous or upset about this meeting but it was nice to hear from the attorney "you are doing a good job, you have made all your payments and are up to date, keep doing what you are doing."
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