Motion to Seek Relief served! Should I challenge it? Would it delay discharge?

[calidebtor]

Chapter 7 Filed: 7/28/10 in California.
341 Meeting: 9/3/10. Trustee Report filed with Court: 9/8/10.
Creditors have till 10/8/10 to file any claims.

I got the filing of Motion to Seek Relief from Stay from my bank HSBC filed on 9/30/10. My hearing for this motion is set for 10/27/10. Why would HSBC file the motion so late in the game? I think if there are no issues, I should have my discharge in the beginning of November!!!

I was already in foreclosure when I filed Chapter 7, and filed BK the day before the sale was supposed to happen at the court footsteps. Since then they have been delaying the sale date by 2-weeks at a time. Since filing the BK, I got a short sale offer on my house and I have submitted that to the bank as well. They asked me to get a letter from the trustee to exclude my house from the stay, which the trustee denied and told me to not do because its better for me to just foreclose on the house AFTER the discharge. So in the mean time, I have submitted all the documents requested by the bank for the short sale and they have already performed the Appraisal for the short sale etc. They are just waiting for me to get a letter from the trustee, which Im not going to get and Im just going to wait till I get a discharge to move forward with Short sale. Before I filed BK, they had informed me that they would NOT delay foreclosure unless I had a short sale offer ACCEPTED by the bank!
So does this mean that they will probably move forward with foreclosure soon after getting their relief on October 27th??? Should I try to fight the relief from stay order? Would fighting that order delay my discharge? Or would I still get a discharge on time(hopefully the first week of November)???
What do some experienced members here think I should do?
My goal is to stay in the house for as long as possible. I would ideally like to stay here till my kids' school is out in June of 2011, if at all possible. I dont care about short sale either way. If it happens, great, if not then I'd just like to stay in the house for as long as possible. Also there's a possibility that if I can get a semi-decent job in the next couple of months, I might try to save the house by filing for Chapter 13.
The house is worth about $500K. First mortgage principal is $470K. Arrears are to the tune of $100K. Second mortgage was orignally $382K but has since gone up higher. I think my strategy, should I get a job quickly, would be to try to strip the second lien and try to save the house if the bank agrees to either reduce or eliminate the arrears.
What do you guys think?

[HHM]

To do the short sale, you need the relief from stay anyway. You won't really have any grounds to oppose (presumably), so it is really a moot point, it will be granted either way on Oct 27. If you oppose the motion, the hearing date DOES NOT change, it will still be the 27th.

[newbie2]

Chapter 7 Filed: 7/28/10 in California.
341 Meeting: 9/3/10. Trustee Report filed with Court: 9/8/10.
Creditors have till 10/8/10 to file any claims.

What do some experienced members here think I should do?
My goal is to stay in the house for as long as possible. I would ideally like to stay here till my kids' school is out in June of 2011, if at all possible. I dont care about short sale either way. If it happens, great, if not then I'd just like to stay in the house for as long as possible. Also there's a possibility that if I can get a semi-decent job in the next couple of months, I might try to save the house by filing for Chapter 13.
The house is worth about $500K. First mortgage principal is $470K. Arrears are to the tune of $100K. Second mortgage was orignally $382K but has since gone up higher. I think my strategy, should I get a job quickly, would be to try to strip the second lien and try to save the house if the bank agrees to either reduce or eliminate the arrears.
What do you guys think?

I'm afraid you are running out of time. If you could have filed for a Chapter 13 to save your house and strip the 2nd mortgage then that would have been ideal from the beginning. Since you are weeks away from a Chapter 7 discharge, and the lender has filed for a relief from the stay (in order to continue the foreclosure process) you probably don't have enough time left to find another job and convert to a Chapter 13.

The arrears that you owe would amount to approximately $1700 a month over a 5 year plan PLUS paying your regular mortgage payment. You need to ask yourself if that is even feasible for you before you try and plot a course to save your home by filing a Chapter 13.

Barring that wonderful job coming your way, I'm afraid you should start planning for the future by saving some money to find a place to live.

Good luck to you.

[calidebtor]

Hmm... So if we assume that for some reason the Judge DID grant me an extension on the hearing, would that delay the discharge in Chp. 7 as well? Would it be considered an unresolved issue or would I get a discharge regardless and as I get discharged, the stay would automatically expire, making their motion moot?

I think if they get their motion granted anyway, it would simply just allow my short sale to proceed with the bank, so either way I should be OK. My main concern was if I challenge their motion, I dont want that to delay the overall discharge.

[calidebtor]

I'm afraid you are running out of time. If you could have filed for a Chapter 13 to save your house and strip the 2nd mortgage then that would have been ideal from the beginning. Since you are weeks away from a Chapter 7 discharge, and the lender has filed for a relief from the stay (in order to continue the foreclosure process) you probably don't have enough time left to find another job and convert to a Chapter 13.

The arrears that you owe would amount to approximately $1700 a month over a 5 year plan PLUS paying your regular mortgage payment. You need to ask yourself if that is even feasible for you before you try and plot a course to save your home by filing a Chapter 13.

Barring that wonderful job coming your way, I'm afraid you should start planning for the future by saving some money to find a place to live.

Good luck to you.

I was actually thinking of doing a Chapter 20 in case that great job came along... long shot, but still its good to be a dreamer, right? Ive been applying like crazy and had one interview in the past week. I was thinking of filing a Chapter 13 after getting a discharge in chapter 7, with the new circumstances being a new job and income. Ive also heard that some banks would 'work' with you on the arrears, and I would only try to keep the house IF they reduced the total balance to below the house value. But Ive also heard that HSBC is one of the worst banks to work. Before filing BK, I tried working with them two seperate times on modification punctuated by an earlier attempt at short selling with a HIGHER offer($535K last September). But they never responded to the earlier short sale offer and the first modification they offered me jacked up my payments by $500 and the most recent modification was rejected by them for insufficient income.
For background info, If I get a job, it would probably be in the $120K-$150K range and my wife works part time and makes around $80K(self-employed). So it would allow us to mabye do something to save the house. But after all said and done, it would have to make economic sense, and I would only go this route IF the bank showed willingness to reduce the arrears to below the house value.

[biotechsolution]

if your 7 discharges you won't be able to file a 13 to strip the 2nd, only to payoff the arrears. You can't get a discharge in a chapter 13 within 4 years of filing a chapter 7.

[tcreegan]

Hi calidebtor,

I don't see where you would have any grounds for objecting to the relief from stay. What would you object to?

....think it is time to see the writing on the wall, the house is going away. Let if foreclose, live there as long as you can, bank the mortgage payments...time to move on....

Tom in Colo

[calidebtor]

Thanks Guys!
I think all of you are right. Its not worth the hassle. There are plenty of homes out there and there probably will be in the next 2 years with even better deals when I would *hopefully* be qualified to get financing for a house again...

[calidebtor]

Yippppppeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Checked Pacer today and got the discharge! Thankyou everyone for all the help with my questions!