Can mortgage company report late payments if mortgage not reaffirmed in CH7?

[gacreditguy]

This is the scenario, in January 2006 I filed Chapter 7 here in Georgia. I did not reaffirm my mortgage in the bankruptcy. I pay the monthly mortgage payments and have had no issues with the mortgage comapny.

Back in 2009, I was late on a few times and naturally, the mortgage company reported these late payment to the CRA's.

I was reading in another thread that IF the mortgage was not reaffirmed, the mortgage company cannot report any late payment information (or any payment information I guess) to any of the CRA's?

Can anyone confirm or deny this? Possibly provide any additional insight?

[MrsDixon]

They cannot report anything after you filed BK. They're implying that you actually owed them money by reporting you late, and you didn't because it was discharged in BK.

[gacreditguy]

They have been reporting me since 2004 each and every month. Is there anything that I can do to have them remove the entries? Most oare good, but those negative ones are killing me.

[StartingOver08]

Yes, you dispute it with the CRA. The tradeline (mortgage) is to read iib with zero balance. iib = included in bankruptcy

[MrsDixon]

I would start with "never late". You can't really be late on a debt you don't owe, right?
If they verify then write the president of the bank a letter letting him/her know that they are violating the bankruptcy laws.


ETA: Were you late prior to filing for BK? If the answer is yes, then they are allowed to report it.
They have to stop reporting after you file. Anything that you did prior to filing can be reported.

[gacreditguy]

UPDATE 5/25/10 : The tradeline was updated and all late pays were removed and acct listed as it should be, IIB

[Faust]

Thanks for the update!

[gacreditguy]

just a randm thought here, on those entries where they did report late (and I was) they also charged late fees to me that I paid.. Is that allowed? If not, then I can fight them a bit to at least deuct the amount of those late fees from my principal balance.

[MrsDixon]

The bankruptcy stay/ FCRA protects you from continued reporting but I don't think that anything can be done about the late payment fees.

I can totally relate to what you're saying and I had that happen to me one month. I wish that there was a way around those late fees but I don't think that there is. Legally they couldn't persue them if you walked away from the house but if you're voluntarily paying the mortgage, and pay it late, it's fair game.

[SMinGA]

While you don't owe the debt, you have to pay by their terms if you want to keep the house.