1st and 2nd Mortgage ?.......

[inseriousdebt]

This may be a stupid question....but I really don't have the answer. We have a first mortgage (adjustable rate starting at the end of this year)...and a 2nd mortgage both with US Bank. Are you able to keep your house in a Chapter 7 if you have to include the second mortgage? or...does this not even work this way?

We would love to keep our house because our payments are current on both but we are expecting our first child in July and this may put us into a Chapter 7 and we don't know how we're going to make it with both mortgages. Our current Ch. 13 payment is 275...and with added expenses and daycare...this is going to go over this....our second mortgage payment is 490.00. Any advice would be helpful!! We would love to be able to swing it, but want to be smart too!

[HHM]

A second mortgage has just as much right to foreclose a mortgage as the first.

You need to realize what gets discharged in a BK vis-a-vis secured debt. The ONLY aspect of a secured debt that gets discharged in a BK is your "personal" obligation to pay the debt, but the Secured Creditor can ALWAYS enforce their note against the securing asset. You cannot discharge the security interest. Thus, if you include a second mortgage in your BK, (which means, you intend not to pay it), the second mortgage not holder has every legal right to foreclose against the securing asset, (i.e. your house).

In your case, since the 1st and 2nd are with the same bank, it is almost a certainty that they will foreclose.

As for advice, I am not sure what to tell you. It boils down to income vs expenses. You either increase income, or cut expenses to make it work.