Not reaffirming after stating to do so?

[inseriousdebt]

I just want to make sure I am correct....if in our petition we said we wanted to reaffirm...but decide against this, we are okay to walk away and the debt will be discharged if it was included in our bankruptcy, correct? We are doing this with our 2 mortgages..and the bank just called today to get an update on our situation.

[NoName]

From what I understand, unless you sign an actual reaffirmation agreement, you are not liable for the debt.

[HHM]

A statement of intention is just that, a statement of "intent". Until a reaffirmation agreement is actually signed and approved by the court, you have NOT reaffirmed anything. Moreover, even if you signed one, you have up to 60 days to disavow the signed reaffirmation agreement (But I also think you need to disavow the reaff before discharge).

Your understanding is correct, if you do not reaffirm, your personal obligation to pay the debt gets discharged (barring some other objection to discharge). Since your debt is mortgage debt, you have 2 options (1) let the house foreclose, i.e. surrender, (2) keep making payments and continue living in the house (however, if you are already behind on payments going into BK, option 2 is off the table).

[NoName]

I just want to make sure I am correct....if in our petition we said we wanted to reaffirm...but decide against this, we are okay to walk away and the debt will be discharged if it was included in our bankruptcy, correct? We are doing this with our 2 mortgages..and the bank just called today to get an update on our situation.

We are actually in the same situation. We have 3 mortgages on the house and are about to walk away from them and into a rent-to-own property.

[Boscoe]

One more point - the reaff must also be approved by the bk court. I reaff'd on our 2 cars, sent the agreement back to the credit union about 2 weeks before our discharge, and the CU never submitted them to the court to get them approved.

So, since it was never approved by the court, we can walk later on if we choose.

We won't do this, of course, as they are good cars and we can't exactly walk to work. But just to let you know how it works.

[HHM]

One more point - the reaff must also be approved by the bk court. I reaff'd on our 2 cars, sent the agreement back to the credit union about 2 weeks before our discharge, and the CU never submitted them to the court to get them approved.

So, since it was never approved by the court, we can walk later on if we choose.

Correct, unless the agreements were filed with the court, they have not legal significance.