Leave Utilities On ???

[norcal]

We are going to start moving into a rental home in the next two weeks. I plan to leave the homeowners insurance on the house we are foreclosing on, but what about the utilities. I want to turn off the electricity, gas, water and garbage, as I can't keep paying for two homes.

I fully expected WF's to attend the 341 meeting and file to request a lift on the stay, but they didn't. We haven't heard a peep from them. We are upside down about $250k and they are very much aware that we have no interest in staying in this home. As far as I know the sale date was rescheduled to June 11th, even though we won't be discharged until July 12th at the earliest.

[helpmeout]

Why are you moving now? You could be saving the money you would be paying for rent. If you are in California, I don't think that you have to worry about pipes freezing, so it may be okay for you to not have any of the utilities on. But you may not be able to maintain the homeowner's insurance on the property unless you live there.

Yesterday was day 60 for me (should be getting discharged sometime next week) and my mortgage lender did not file for a lift from the stay. But I also didn't miss any payments until a month before I filed. It simply may not have been worth the extra legal costs to file for a lift from the stay. A chapter 7 really is done in a short time, even if it feels like a long time.

[HHM]

I don't think you need to leave them on. You mentioned living in CA so pipe freezing may not be an issue for you.

Certain things you may not be able to get out of your name (water, garbage) until the home foreclosures. But you should be able to shut off Elec. and Gas without a problem.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I would shut all but the electricity off. Leave an old lamp and radio with a cheap timer to make the house looked lived in. No need for water but there is chance of break in for the scrappers who have been known to tear a house up just for the copper wire and plumbing. It would not cost much. Do not tell the insurance company anything as they may cancel. If you have electricity on, technically, the house is "livable" and arguable if the incurable needs to be invoked for some reason. Staying (camping) one day a week also legalizes non abandonment for insurance reasons. 'Hub

[catleg]

Smoke detector chirping: official sound of REO homes.

Jim the Realtor

[norcal]

We actually hadn't planned on moving out until the last minute, but I started looking around for a rental home for our family and got a bit scared of the market. I need a minimum of 4 bedrooms and 4-5 bedroom houses are in short supply and get rented fast. I was very upfront about our circumstances (bk & foreclosure) which didn't seem to be a problem, but when the landlord learned that we had a family of 8, the mood seemed to change. I actually had someone tell me that they were worried about us supporting our family. I made a point to remind him that we were disposing all of our bills in the bk, but he couldn't seem to get around the size of our family, even though our income is great, after the bk. I didn't think to tell him that he was discriminating, because he would have just said it was our credit.

I finally found a landlord that didn't mind our multi-generation family and we just decided to go with it. I've already notified our insurance that we are going to be renting a home and leaving this one, though I would need to keep insurance until the move and sale was complete. There were no other questions from our agent.

One other reason for renting now, is that WF was notified of the bk and so was the lawyers office handling the foreclosure. They had a sale date two days before our 341 and when I called the lawyers office after they posted the notice on our door two weeks before, they claimed they knew nothing about it and that they weren't changing the date. I explained to them what the "stay" meant, but they were playing stupid. I then called WF and got the same run-a-round and ended up hanging up on two rude unprofessional men. The third time I talked to a very nice lady and explained the situation to her. She looked up the bk and marked our account, but still said that the sale date was rescheduled for June 11th. I expect the auction to occur after July 15th (discharge date), unless they still try to sneak it in on June 11th. We don't have extra money to fight with them and since we are leaving the home anyways, we decided it was more important to make sure our family had a place to go when we needed it. Gosh, this is a long story......thank you for all the advice, it is very much appreciated.