a friend of mine recently filed bankrupcy - she used a local service to fill out her paper work. She told them she wanted to keep her house - they had her reaffirm - She went to the 341 and everything went peachy.....now, she is leaving her house and husband. He says he will keep the house, but odds are he will stay in the house and not pay for it. Can she re-open her bankrupcy to add the house, or is she screwed because she reaffirmed?
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A couple questions first...
1. When was the bankrutpcy discharged
2. When was the reaffirmation filed and affirmed by the court.
A reaffirmation agreement can be revoked anytime before discharge, but if the case has been discharged, than she is out of luck.
A reaffirmation agreement can be revoked anytime within 60 days from the day it was signed by the judge and entered on the docket. But, if more than 60 days have lapsed since the reaffirmation agreement was entered on the docket of your friends case, then she is out of luck.
But it doesn't really matter that much. If she is leaving her husband (I would assume that means a divorce is inevitable), then the divorce can take care of the mortgage. In a divorce, a house is either sold, or the party wanting to keep the house has to refinance the house to remove the other party from the deed and mortgage note. -
thanks for the info - I will let her know - she is not discharged yet, her 341 was on the 22nd of August. she asked the trustee at that time if she could change it and he told her she would have to refile all her paper work. she took that to mean that she had to start all over on her bankrupcy and pay to have the papers done again $350 and another filing fee of $209. I told her I thought she would just have to pay for an amendment, but wasn't sure - that it might be worth a trip to an attorneyComment
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Oh, lets back the truck up for a second.
If all she has done is state in here statement of intentions that she is "planning" on reaffirming the debt, then she really doesn't need to do anything. She would still need to sign a reaffirmation agreement with the mortgage company, which presumably she hasn't done yet. So if they offer her one, she just needs to refuse to sign it. To give her the maximum protection, all she has to do amend here Statement of Intentions, that is really simple.Comment
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thanks so much - so, does she need to file a motion to reopen the bankrupcy, just amend the statment of intentions ($26 filing fee) or is it something that she needs an attorney for. She is pretty poor right now, in the processess of moving out of her house, etc.Comment
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HHM - I just pulled a copy of the the Chapter 7 Individual Debtor's Statement of Intention..... Now I am not only helping her out, but trying to figure out how mine should be filled out also. I want to keep my house, keep paying the mortgage payments, but not reaffirm in case something down the road does happen. #2 asks - property to be surrendered or b. property to be retained and then under retained it says check any applicable statement
Description of Property Creditor's name Property is clained as exempty
Property will be redeemed pursuant to 11 U.S.C 722
Deby will be reaffirmed pursuant to 11 U.S.C. 524(c)
I take it I s hould check Property will be redeemed, but not Debt will be reaffirmed----is this correct?Comment
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If her bankruptcy hasn't been discharged, then her bankruptcy is still open. All she has to do is amend the Statement of Intentions. Which basically means, getting a new Statement of Intentions, filing it out how she wants it filled out, go to the Bankruptcy Clerk's office and filing it with the clerk (I am not sure if she needs to pay the $26 or not, the clerk can tell her.Originally posted by TeriComment
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You only have to pay the $26 if there is a change in your creditor matrix, i.e. you forgot about a creditor and want to add it. But any other changes, like if you want to change income, expenses, or anything else on any of your schedules, you just redo the schedule that you want to change, make extra copies, sign if necessary, and take it down or mail it to the court.
I think the fee is because if you change a creditor or creditors, the court now has to mail notices to those creditors that you added.Comment
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Assuming that you're in a state that allows a 'ride-through' on secured property, you should look at some of your local cases to find how they fill out the statement of intentions for your location. In my district, none of the boxes are checked, but the statement "Debtor will retain collateral and continue to make regular payments" is typed across the field where the 'x' would be. You must be current & remain current on pmts thruout the process.Originally posted by TeriComment
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if you get behind on payments will they start immediate foreclosure? I am in Colorado. How do I go about finding out if Colorado allows the "ride-through". I am going to check my friends bankrupcy packet to see how her form was filled out - I also just started getting paranoid about local forms. I am using a on-line service to do my paper work and I don't know if they will do the local forms. Anyone know - anyone here ever used Bridgeport?Comment
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Yes - you're in good shape - colorado is in the 10th circuit, which does support the 'retain' option. As I understand it, it is very important to be current & remain current until you are discharged and the dust settles. However, with a little time, my att'y tells me that he has not had any clients that have suffered any grief if they're a little late one month. However, I don't believe that I will put that to the test anytime in the near future, just in case...Comment
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I just looked at a copy of her bankrupcy papers - I was wondering....does she also need to change Schedule C - Property Claimed as Exempt - I am thinking no, but wanted to make sure---last question, where can I find a copy of the bankrupcy code 11 U.S.C. 722 and 524(C)?Comment
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