Hello to all,
I'm new to posting here, but have been lurking for the past few months. I've learned alot here in hopes of keeping our Ch. 7 filing short & sweet. Here's the short version of our "tale of woe".
We are a blended family, 4 kids. We have been married 5 years. Oldest child (my son) graduated high school last year, and is spending a year in Europe. We are NOT funding his year abroad. He will return late this summer to begin college here. Son #2 (his son) lives with us, and is a junior in high school. Child #3, aged 14 (his daughter) lives with her Mom out of state (for now...but thinking of moving here for high school). Child #4 (our late in life surprise blessing...4 years old) lives with us, of course.
We have about $55K in debt, mostly cc, but also some back taxes that my husband owed from 1996. He has been paying on these all along, and is currently down to about $6K.
Our household income decreased by ~$17K/year about a year ago, when our oldest graduated high school and child support stopped.
Since then, we have increasingly relied on credit cards, juggling payment dates, transferring balances, etc. to get by. Around the first of the year, we realized that our luck was just running out. After some agonizing discussions, and meeting with a few attorneys, we decided to file BK (done 4/7/07). Initially, we thought we would have to go 13, but our attorney has managed to get a 7, with "NO PRESUMPTION OF ABUSE". Our 341 is scheduled for June 6. I'm nervous, but after reading many posts here, it sounds fairly painless and straight forward.
So........here's the BIG PROBLEM (maybe?):
Today our "Notice of Case, Meeting of Creditors, & Deadlines" form arrived. In a separate envelope a MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM THE AUTOMATIC STAY for our home also arrived. This states that at the time they (mortgage co) filed this (4/12), we were behind for our March 1st payment. It also states that we have no equity because the value is 186,000 and we owe 187,000. We were indeed late with the March Payment ( it was sent out 4/9) because we used those funds to pay our BK attorney to file. We intend on keeping our home (for now) and will be current before our 341 meeting. BTW, our lenders are Chase & Ocwen for our mortgage. We refi'd a couple years ago for 100%, to get cash out for some other debts.
So....I guess the BIG QUESTIONS are:
1. Do we need to do anything other than get current on our mortgage to avoid any trouble with our lender, or does this Motion for Relief from Stay mean they want to foreclose?
2. Should I receive a copy of the list of creditors that my attorney included? And when?
3. When will our phones stop ringing off the hook? Our biggest creditors are: IRS, Discover, Citi, HSBC.
4. Will we FINALLY be able to actually get our income tax returns??? For the past 5 years, any tax refund we were expecting has been applied to my husbands IRS tax bill from 1996. Attorney says that will be included in the CH7, because of the age of the debt.
Thanks in advance for any advice or comments, especially with regards to the house/mortgage. This forum has already helped me understand lots of this mess....
Hoping for brighter skies ahead....
I'm new to posting here, but have been lurking for the past few months. I've learned alot here in hopes of keeping our Ch. 7 filing short & sweet. Here's the short version of our "tale of woe".
We are a blended family, 4 kids. We have been married 5 years. Oldest child (my son) graduated high school last year, and is spending a year in Europe. We are NOT funding his year abroad. He will return late this summer to begin college here. Son #2 (his son) lives with us, and is a junior in high school. Child #3, aged 14 (his daughter) lives with her Mom out of state (for now...but thinking of moving here for high school). Child #4 (our late in life surprise blessing...4 years old) lives with us, of course.
We have about $55K in debt, mostly cc, but also some back taxes that my husband owed from 1996. He has been paying on these all along, and is currently down to about $6K.
Our household income decreased by ~$17K/year about a year ago, when our oldest graduated high school and child support stopped.
Since then, we have increasingly relied on credit cards, juggling payment dates, transferring balances, etc. to get by. Around the first of the year, we realized that our luck was just running out. After some agonizing discussions, and meeting with a few attorneys, we decided to file BK (done 4/7/07). Initially, we thought we would have to go 13, but our attorney has managed to get a 7, with "NO PRESUMPTION OF ABUSE". Our 341 is scheduled for June 6. I'm nervous, but after reading many posts here, it sounds fairly painless and straight forward.
So........here's the BIG PROBLEM (maybe?):
Today our "Notice of Case, Meeting of Creditors, & Deadlines" form arrived. In a separate envelope a MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM THE AUTOMATIC STAY for our home also arrived. This states that at the time they (mortgage co) filed this (4/12), we were behind for our March 1st payment. It also states that we have no equity because the value is 186,000 and we owe 187,000. We were indeed late with the March Payment ( it was sent out 4/9) because we used those funds to pay our BK attorney to file. We intend on keeping our home (for now) and will be current before our 341 meeting. BTW, our lenders are Chase & Ocwen for our mortgage. We refi'd a couple years ago for 100%, to get cash out for some other debts.
So....I guess the BIG QUESTIONS are:
1. Do we need to do anything other than get current on our mortgage to avoid any trouble with our lender, or does this Motion for Relief from Stay mean they want to foreclose?
2. Should I receive a copy of the list of creditors that my attorney included? And when?
3. When will our phones stop ringing off the hook? Our biggest creditors are: IRS, Discover, Citi, HSBC.
4. Will we FINALLY be able to actually get our income tax returns??? For the past 5 years, any tax refund we were expecting has been applied to my husbands IRS tax bill from 1996. Attorney says that will be included in the CH7, because of the age of the debt.
Thanks in advance for any advice or comments, especially with regards to the house/mortgage. This forum has already helped me understand lots of this mess....
Hoping for brighter skies ahead....
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