F/U on How long are we responsible

[Kingxray]

Hi all,

In a previous thread I had asked how long are we responsible for a house we are surrendering in Bk 7. The mortgage company informed our homeowners insurance that the house was vacant and our homeowners is now going to cancel our policy and will not renew it because the house is vacant.

I spoke to our lawyer today and he said not to pay anything more, utilities, homeowners insurance etc. He said the minute we surrendered it in the BK we no longer were responsible for it. Food for thought?

[Help!]

The lender in our case secured their own insurance for the property, but it did not cover liability. We found out that we could still be held liable if someone was injured on our property. We looked into carrying only liability insurance on the property, but decided the best thing to do would be to get the house out of our names and into the hands of the lender ASAP. We contacted the lender's attorney and let them know we'd be willing to sign over the deed (like a deed-in-lieu only there would be no debt to forgive because of the BK). The lender jumped at this since it saved them the expense of a judicial foreclosure. It took a few phone calls to get in touch with someone knowledgeable enough about the foreclosure process to understand what we were offering, but it happened pretty quickly after that. It was one less unfinished symphony in our BK, one less thing to worry about, and the house was sold in six months instead of 18-24. I'm sure the neighborhood was grateful not to have another deteriorating house to look at, too.