Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box

Your Right To Credit Reporting After Bankruptcy

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credit report after bankruptcy

You’ve finished your Chapter 13 and emerged from bankruptcy with your home loan current.

But your credit report is a blank page as to your mortgage.

The mortgage servicer isn’t reporting your payments to the credit reporting agencies.  

Nothing. Nada.  Crickets.

So, even though you’re making regular payments, you’re not visibly rebuilding your credit.

Ask the servicer and they’ll tell you that they can’t report your payments “because of your bankruptcy discharge“.

But they are wrong:  a little-discussed provision of Chapter 13 says that long-term mortgage debt is not discharged in 13.

Yup.  The mortgage loan is not discharged as a personal obligation.

And therefore, there is no bar to the servicer reporting your payments, and every danger should they not report.

Servicer’s obligation to report

Put simply, if a creditor reported to credit reporting agencies before the bankruptcy was filed, then there is an obligation to report after the bankruptcy.  The “furnisher”, the creditor who supplies information to the credit reporting agency, has an obligation to make the information on file fully accurate.

In contrast to an unsecured debt like a credit card, which should be reported as having a zero balance after the discharge, the mortgage loan after Chapter 13 has a balance.

Presumably, it is also current.  Both facts which should appear on your credit report.

Mortgages excluded from Chapter 13 discharge

I’m certain you will have to cite to bankruptcy law when you challenge the improper reporting on a mortgage loan after Chapter 13.

Here’s the part of the Bankruptcy Code that excludes long term debt like your mortgage.

Section 1328 says,

(a)… the court shall grant the debtor a discharge of all debts provided for by the plan …, except any debt—

(1)provided for under section 1322(b)(5); 

The section that 1328 incorporates, Section 1322(b), says

(b)Subject to subsections (a) and (c) of this section, the plan may—

(5) … provide for the curing of any default within a reasonable time and maintenance of payments while the case is pending on any unsecured claim or secured claim on which the last payment is due after the date on which the final payment under the plan is due;

Get mortgage payments reported

If you find that your post discharge payments on your home loan aren’t being reported, challenge the accuracy of what is on your report about that loan with the credit reporting agency.

It is the CRA’s responsibility to see that information in your credit file is accurate.  The CRA is supposed to ask the furnisher to reinvestigate the challenged tradeline.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a how-to, with a template letter, on how to dispute inaccurate information on your credit report.

Get the good information reported.

More

How to find and fix credit reporting errors

Your post bankruptcy to-do list

The Debt You Thought Was Gone: When Old Liens Suddenly Appear

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I Have Forgotten Something

What do you do when you discover a judgment lien long after you filed bankruptcy?

Your bankruptcy case is closed.

You’re recovering nicely.

Then you find there’s a judgment lien on your house that you didn’t know about.

And the law says that liens survive a bankruptcy case, unless the bankruptcy court orders otherwise.

Is there anything you can do to get rid of the lien?

Most likely, yes.

Can the lien be avoided

The debtor (that’s you, the person who filed the bankruptcy) can ask the bankruptcy court to void a lien on their property if

  • The debt existed when the bankruptcy case was first filed
  • The lien is a judgment lien
  • The property to which the lien attaches was claimed exempt
  • The property had too little value to pay any senior liens, the judgment lien, and your exemption

Let’s look at each requirement for an avoidable lien, found in Bankruptcy Code 522(f).

Predates the bankruptcy

Bankruptcy impacts only debts that predate the filing of the case.  That doesn’t mean that there has to be a default on the debt or a lawsuit filed.

But the events that create the debt have to have happened before the bankruptcy was filed:  you used the credit card;  you were involved in an accident; or you were transported by ambulance.

Your bankruptcy case potentially effects all debts arising before you filed.  But the legal rights involved can’t have arisen since your bankruptcy was filed.

Lien secures a judgment

Liens that can be wiped out because they impair exemptions must be judicial liens, that is a lien created by a lawsuit.

Voluntary liens, like mortgages and home equity lines of credit can’t be eliminated because they interfere with exemptions. This section of the law deals only with involuntary liens.

You can’t eliminate statutory liens, either.  Tax liens are created by statute.  They aren’t covered by this provision of the bankruptcy code.

Property was claimed exempt

Because this part of the law is focused on seeing that you get the full benefits of the exemptions you claimed, the property affected by the lien must have been claimed exempt.

Some courts will avoid a lien if the property in question could have been claimed exempt.

Lien frustrates claim of exemption

To meet this condition for avoidance, some math is required.

As of the day the case was originally filed, the value of the property then had to have been insufficient to pay the balance of any voluntary liens on the property, the exemption, and the lien you want to avoid.

It may be that the lien at issue is avoidable only in part, if the value of the house would pay mortgages and the exemption, and something beyond.

The fact that there is no value in excess of the voluntary liens doesn’t prevent you from avoiding the lien. It’s not an all or nothing thing.

Revisiting your case

So, what do you do when the lien is discovered well after your bankruptcy case is over?  Reopen the case, and ask the court to avoid the lien or liens that impair your exemption.

Your motion to reopen needs to tell the court what you want to achieve.  Usually, you attach your motion to avoid the lien to the motion to reopen the case.

Most courts will want you to pay a new filing fee, to pay for the new work the court is going to do.  You can ask that the fee be refunded, but usually, you’ll have to pay up front to get started.

This isn’t a new bankruptcy case. You aren’t endangering the financial recovery you’ve made since your bankruptcy.  You are revisiting the old case to take care of old business.

The lawyer who helped you with the original case can handle the lien avoidance, or you can engage another bankruptcy lawyer to accomplish this task.

When time is tight

The overlooked judgment lien usually pops up when you are ready to sell your home or to refinance it.

Often that means you are working to deadlines.

A motion to reopen and to avoid a lien is likely to take 45-60 days before you have a bankruptcy court order in hand, voiding the lien.

If you find yourself short of time, consider negotiating for the escrow to hold the money that would otherwise go to the holder of the lien when the deal closes, while you go back to bankruptcy court.

If you didn’t check the public record before you filed your bankruptcy case to check for judgment liens, do it now.  Don’t wait for a time crunch.

Thankfully, bankruptcy courts are accustomed to helping with the overlooked lien.

More

Tax liens after bankruptcy

What was discharged in my bankruptcy case

Stripping off mortgage liens

Post bankruptcy check list

Image: Fotolia.com

 

Ten Debts That Follow You After Bankruptcy

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debts after bankruptcy

Some debts just follow you out of bankruptcy.

Not many but a few.

These debts continue to be collectible even after a Chapter 7 discharge.  The discharge in Chapter 13 is different and broader:  just another reason to choose Chapter 13.

1.   Family support

Regardless of what it’s called, court ordered payments for support of children or spouses

2.   Recent taxes

Income taxes for tax years  more than three years old, counting from when the return was due

3.   Taxes still assessable

The IRS ability to assess additional tax survives if the tax year was still assessable at filing

4.   Taxes for unfiled years

The clock doesn’t run on tax discharge until an honest return is filed.

5.   Payroll taxes

The trust portion of payroll taxes, federal and state:  that’s what the employer withholds from employee checks

6.   Judgments for drunk driving

Liability for death or personal injury from impaired operation of a vehicle

7.   Debts to spouse or child from divorce

Debts to your own lawyer do get wiped out

8.   Student loans

Unless you file suit in the bankruptcy and prove repayment is an undue hardship

9.   Money borrowed to pay non dischargeable tax

No paying taxes with a loan you want to discharge.

10.  Penalties to governments

This covers fines, penalties and forfeitures that are intended to punish not compensate

Non dischargeable if….

Three additional categories of debts survive bankruptcy only if the affected creditor successfully jumps through some legal hoops in the bankruptcy case.

Debts incurred by fraud; debts for conversion or breach of fiduciary duty; and debts for deliberate injury to person or property require the victim to file suit and prove the operative facts.

There’s a short period for filing a non dischargeability action and the presumptions operate in favor of the debtor.  But if the creditor can establish the bad behavior of the debtor that created the debt, public policy says we don’t want to shelter bad actors.

It’s important to understand that the debt must have been incurred by the bad behavior;  just trying to evade payment of an honestly incurred debt doesn’t make it non dischargeable, in most instances.

Liens survive unless…

How to get rid of liens through bankruptcy

While a bankruptcy discharge wipes out your personal liability for discharged debts, a lien on property you owned when you filed bankruptcy continues to be liable for the debt.  So you aren’t liable but your property can be seized to pay the debt.

Think of your home loan:  your discharge keeps the lender from suing you after bankruptcy for a money judgment, but it doesn’t keep the lender from foreclosing on your house if you don’t pay after bankruptcy..

After bankruptcy, as long as you continue to pay on a secured debt, the creditor is generally happy to take your money and leave you alone.  If you change your mind, or further financial troubles loom, you can walk away from the liened property, losing only the property.

An experienced bankruptcy lawyer can walk you through the bankruptcy discharge and the landscape after your case is over.

More

Interview questions for hiring a bankruptcy lawyer

What to do about tax liens

Reaffirming a car debt

 

4 Essential Tips To Get Ready For Bankruptcy

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ready for life after bankruptcyReady for life after bankruptcy?

Even before your case is filed, you can start preparing for your life after bankruptcy.

These four steps will probably  make the bankruptcy case be smoother, too.

Change banks

Your money on deposit in “your” bank may not be solely yours.

If you have a loan or other debt to your bank, the bank can help itself to funds in your deposit account to apply to what you owe it.

That’s called set off:  the amount the bank owes you (your account balance)  is set off against what you owe it.  Trust me, you’ll lose if that happens.

Since you usually stop making payments on dischargeable debts once you’ve made the decision to file bankruptcy, don’t leave your cash sitting in the bank, waiting to to be snatched by the bank who didn’t get paid this month.

Open a banking relationship elsewhere with an institution you don’t owe money.  Move your money, and any automatic deposits, to the new bank or credit union.

You don’t need to close the existing account.  Just keep no more money there than you’re willing to lose if the bank does a set off.

Review automatic bill payments

If money is automatically taken from your account to pay recurring bills, ask yourself if each of those withdrawals are bills you want to pay if you are filing bankruptcy.

If not, stop the bleeding.

Cancel payments on old debts, debt settlement arrangements, and things you can do without in your new financial life.

Sometimes, it seems the only way to stop such things is to close the bank account.  I’ve seen any number of cases where my client may stop the withdrawal for this month, but it pops back up next month.

On the other hand, if you end up changing banks to avoid an offset, as I talked about above, think about whether the automatic payments are for services you want to continue post bankruptcy.

If so, set them up at your new bank.

Can the cards

Stop using your credit cards.

Once you’ve decided to file bankruptcy, any charges to your credit cards may be considered fraudulent.  After all, you don’t expect to pay off that card after bankruptcy.

Since you’ve stopped paying on the dischargeable credit card debt, use the cash freed up to pay for purchases with cash.

A debit card is fine, since it just draws on your own money.  It isn’t a loan to be repaid.

Just like automatic bill pay, if you have ongoing and necessary expenses regularly billed to your credit card, you need to make a new arrangement to pay those bills monthly.  You can expect your credit cards to be terminated upon filing.

Remember the checking account float

The balance in your account on the day your bankruptcy case is filed is the number important to you and the bankruptcy trustee.  It is not the balance as shown on your check register.

The balance on the day you file is property of the estate.  That’s the amount that may need to be protected by claiming an exemption, or turned over to the trustee.

Watch out, if you write checks on the eve of filing.  If they haven’t cleared the bank when your case is filed, they may never clear, as the trustee may demand the balance shown on the bank’s books on the day you file.

If you have things you have to pay before filing or if you are counting on spending down the bank account, get cashier’s checks.

The funds to buy a cashier’s check are immediately taken from your account; there is no float.

Smooth sailing

Get these four things done before you file your case, and things in your financial life in general will go more smoothly.

Then you can graduate to my list of 8 must do tasks after you get your discharge.

More

Who to pay after filing bankruptcy

Pay less for your car in Chapter 7

Who is discharged in my bankruptcy

Image courtesy of Carmen Jost and Flickr

Credit Reports Heal

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band-24298_1280 (1)_optWill filing bankruptcy hurt my credit? Probably.

Should that hit to your credit keep from filing bankruptcy?  Not by a long shot.

Incredibly, I encounter people drowning in debt who think their credit report is more important than their financial health.

Their thinking seems to be that credit, once damaged, is never the same.

It’s not so.

A blow to your credit is not permanent nor even long lasting.

Your “credit”, or really, your worthiness for new credit, is almost a living, breathing thing.  It can suffer a blow and recover.

Credit hit is like a cut

Whether you choose debt settlement, debt management or bankruptcy, the solution will damage your credit, in the short run.

Think of the damage like a wound.

The wound bleeds, it exposes the rest of your body to infection.  It hurts.

Think of bankruptcy as antiseptic.  Douse the wound with antiseptic to kill infection and promote healing and it hurts…but the hurt fades.

Over time, the wound closes and scabs over.  It isn’t painful most of the time.

When it’s healed, there’s a bit of a scar.

Over time, even the scar fades.

Debt is chronic disease

When your debts are beyond paying off in the normal course, it’s like a disease you can’t beat.  Persistent symptoms, sometimes progressively worse, other times just ever-present.

Debt saps your energy, consumes your thinking and limits your opportunities.

If your debts are such that you’ve considered bankruptcy, your credit worthiness is probably already compromised.  Would any creditor lend you more money at a reasonable rate?

If not, your credit may not be doing you any good at present.

Your balance sheet is what counts

A credit report is a limited history.  As time passes, the oldest history falls off the report to be replaced with the snapshot of today’s finances.

If you use bankruptcy to wipe away your old debts, your balance sheet (assets minus liabilities) improves on the spot.

The bankruptcy filing shows on your credit report, in the rear view mirror, for some time.  But its significance to lenders fades the farther down the road you get from filing.

But with your old debts gone, even right after you file, you no long look like someone who already has as much debt as they can handle  or more.

Take steps to get financially healthy and your credit will recover too.

More

Your right to credit reporting after bankruptcy

Tips for real estate loans after bankruptcy

Life after bankruptcy

Image courtesy of Flickr and RambergMedia Images under a Creative Commons license.

Rising From The Ashes Of Financial Disaster

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phoenix rising from ashesLife doesn’t end with bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy doesn’t mean that the good times are all in the past.

There’s the  future, too.

Both the individual and society reap benefits from bankruptcy in ways that you may have missed.

So, in my view, Jay Fleichman’s analysis of the bankruptcy of Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET and once a very rich man, didn’t go far enough.

Win some, lose some, said Minor.

Jay added, Don’t lose sight of the benefits to the society that preceded Minor’s crash.

The good before the crash

Minor’s ideas and entrepreneurship created jobs, technology, and wealth.

And then the fruits of the first success soured.  Minor’s subsequent ventures failed.

He filed Chapter 7 and tossed in the towel on this chapter of his business life.

The good to come

But that won’t be the end of the story nor the end of the benefits to the country as a whole.

I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that Minor starts another business, invests in a success, or shares his knowledge with others, after the bankruptcy.

That, for me, is the priceless consequence of bankruptcy.

The person who has filed bankruptcy and discharged his debts is freed up from the shackles of a financial disaster.  They don’t have to lurk in the underground economy, dodging creditors, hiding money, and laying low.

Their economic energy is liberated.  We all benefit.

The possibility that someone won’t be able to pay their bills is built into the price of commercial products.  It doesn’t come as a surprise to an astute manager that there will be some failures.  ( Non commercial transactions like loans within families and personal injury suits don’t do so well in bankruptcy because they’re not market driven). 

Business cycles, bad luck,or bad judgment can generate a personal financial crisis. 

But like the Phoenix rising from the ashes of its own funeral pyre,  bankruptcy debtors live to be be productive again.

Image in the public domain via Wikimedia.

Bankruptcy Changes Your Life, Only Not The Way You Think

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How will filing bankruptcy change my life?

My clients ask all the time.  They imagine the remainder of their life after bankruptcy with neither credit cards nor credit.  Outcasts in our economy.  Shunned by all.  Crippled by bankruptcy.

They can see a scarlet “B” tattooed on their foreheads to mark them forever as Bankrupts.

My short, irreverent answer to that question is that they will sleep better at night.

Other side effects of bankruptcy include a drop off in telephone calls from collectors and shrinkage of the amount of mail they get.

They get smarter; debt makes you dumb.

All true, but probably not the answer they expected from a bankruptcy lawyer.

Life after bankruptcy

At the superficial level, life continues only slightly changed after bankruptcy.

Your credit score probably goes up a bit, in the short run.  Credit is more expensive shortly after bankruptcy, becoming more available and more affordable as time goes on.  With time and a down payment, you can buy a house.

Credit heals

Your ability to borrow too much on student loans endures.

Most important, in my view, is that eliminating debt means that you can take responsibility for providing for your old age.  A frightening slice of Americans have nothing more than Social Security to support themselves as they age.  And age they will, even if they believe they will never “retire”.

An equal number of people couldn’t handle a $400 emergency without borrowing money.

You drive change

The more serious answer has to reflect what brought them to me to file bankruptcy in the first place.

When the driving force was gambling or some other irresponsible behavior, I tell them that I can dig them out of this hole with bankruptcy relief, but positive change for the future requires that they change their behavior.

When the current crisis is  created by events beyond their control, like job loss, divorce or illness, bankruptcy is likely to put their financial lives back on track.

For those in business,  failure is one of the risks that we take when we sign up to be entrepreneurs.  Bankruptcy clears the financial decks so we can go forward with life.

Life after bankruptcy can be what you make it.  Bankruptcy makes it possible;  you color in the details.

More

3 things that keep you from getting out of debt

Bankruptcy myths

Your Bankruptcy Discharge Has Teeth: Bite Back

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bankruptcy discharge has teeth

Your bankruptcy discharge is more than a piece of paper.  It’s a federal court order prohibiting action to collect the discharged debt from you.

And it has teeth.

When creditors ignore a federal court order, it has unpleasant consequences.  Or should have consequences.

So, my call to debtors is to stop being prey to unscrupulous debt collectors.

Bite back.

Discharge binds all creditors

All creditors who got notice of your bankruptcy are subject to the discharge injunction, with a few exceptions.

That’s why it’s so important to list everyone who thinks you owe them money in your bankruptcy schedules. Getting your schedules right.

The discharge is a public record, retrievable on PACER  by anyone who is interested.

In short, there is no excuse for the creditor (or anyone who bought the debt from your creditor) to attempt collection of debts predating your bankruptcy.

And creditors who try to collect have effectively given you the right to sue them at their expense.

Here’s hoping that more debtors harassed by creditors after their bankruptcy will march into court for enforcement of their right to a fresh start.

When collector calls after bankruptcy

Whether it’s a debt buyer or the original creditor, it seems to be inevitable that you will encounter a collector after your bankruptcy case is over.

When that happens, make sure you tell the collector about your bankruptcy discharge.  To have a legal remedy for the violation of the discharge, you will need to prove that the collector knows about the discharge.

  • Tell them.
  • Make notes that you’ve told them.
  • Write them.
  • Keep a copy of your letter.

They’ve had their one cost-free mistake. The next contact will cost them.

The debt buyer can’t hide behind the fact that it wasn’t the listed creditor in your schedules.  If the debt buyer bought a discharged debt, he’s gotten nothing of value.

But again, you need to point out to the collector that the debt is gone by reason of the bankruptcy discharge.

Any further collection after learning of the bankruptcy spells trouble for the collector.

Suing to enforce the discharge

The doors to the bankruptcy court are always open to debtors whose discharge is being ignored.  And at the end of the day, prove your case and the collector pays your attorney’s fees.

How much more than your attorneys’ fees you recover depends on your ability to show how the discharge violation hurt you.

  • Lose sleep
  • Get turned down for a loan
  • End up in the doctor’s office
  • Take a credit report hit
  • Feel helpless and hounded

Those are just some examples of the damages you might experience.

9th circuit bankruptcyThe discharge is enforced by motion here in the 9th Circuit, which means you can get a hearing before the judge much faster than if you’d filed an adversary complaint.

The motion is a contested matter under bankruptcy rules.   That entitles you to discovery from the other side if you want or need it.

Most motions are heard and decided on the written pleadings and declarations. Nothing prevents a bankruptcy judge from taking live testimony.

Stop suffering in silence

If creditors who were discharged in your bankruptcy case continue to hound you, do something.

Tell your bankruptcy attorney.  Bring in the evidence about your contacts with the creditor.

If your bankruptcy attorney doesn’t handle contested matters, ask for a referral to an attorney who does or shop for a local attorney willing to enforce your rights.

It’s my conviction that until it costs creditors to ignore the discharge, they will continue to do so.

And judges don’t know this is a problem until we tell the story in their courtrooms.

So, make them toe the line or pay for the failure to do so.

Debtors beat big banks in California case

What to do after your bankruptcy discharge

Debts that survive the discharge

 

 

 

 

Fix Mortgage Troubles After Chapter 13

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mortgage mess

The mortgage servicer took less than 30 days to change its story, big time.

In three weeks time, the servicer went from telling the bankruptcy court, under penalty of perjury, that the loan was current, to telling the homeowner that she was $50,000 behind.

The whole story appears here.

Three weeks!

And there, in a nutshell, you see the utter disarray in mortgage loan accounting when a bankruptcy is involved.  (Actually I doubt the accounting is any better outside of bankruptcy, but that’s another story.)

Home loan after Chapter 13

Trouble with your home mortgage right after you’ve completed a Chapter 13 is a real bummer.

You get current through years in Chapter 13, make the payments after you file, and then are slammed with a statement saying you’re behind. Or worse, you get a foreclosure notice.

The problem was widespread enough that the national bankruptcy rules committee wrote a rule trying to head off the problem. That’s how we got FRBP 3002.1.

The rule requires lenders with a lien on your home to provide notice while you’re in Chapter 13 of changes to your payments and of fees and expenses added to your loan.  Then, at the end of the case, they need to file a response indicating whether they agree that you are current post – filing on the loan.

Yet time after time, mortgage servicers, the folks who are supposed to keep track of your payments on your loan, tell the bankruptcy court that you’re current in a filing signed under penalty of perjury.  Then they turn around within weeks, and sing a different tune.  In one of my cases, weeks after telling the bankruptcy court she was current, Big Bad Bank said she was $50,000 behind.

And it’s happened many times just this year.  The servicers either don’t know, or don’t care, what they tell the court about the loan.

While it’s supremely galling, you are not without power to sort the situation out.  Even though your bankruptcy case is over, you have unexpected friends:  bankruptcy law itself; the bankruptcy judge; and your attorney.

How to make your mortgage loan right

The folks who wrote the rule must have had a premonition that the rule requiring disclosure and transparency wouldn’t alway work.  Here’s what they wrote in the official comments to the Rule.

If, after the chapter 13 debtor has completed payments under the plan and the case has been closed, the holder of a claim secured by the debtor’s principal residence seeks to recover amounts that should have been but were not disclosed under this rule, the debtor may move to have the case reopened in order to seek sanctions against the holder of the claim under subdivision (i).

In short, get the matter back before the bankruptcy judge.

The Bankruptcy Code contemplates that you might need to reopen a closed bankruptcy case to seek relief.  There’s a procedure for reopening the case.

You may have to advance the filing fee, but you should be able to either get it refunded by the court, or collect it from the servicer.

Lender faces trouble in court

In my view, the lender who filed a statement with the court saying the loan was current and then sent a mortgage statement claiming an arrears arising from the period of the bankruptcy has two problems.

One problem is that matter of judicial estoppel, the idea that a party can’t take one position before the bankruptcy court and another in a state law foreclosure action.  If there were unpaid amounts at the end of the bankruptcy case, the Rule 3002.1 procedure was supposed to flush those out before the bankruptcy case was closed, and resolve them.

The second problem is that attempts to collect debts discharged in bankruptcy violates the discharge injunction.  And there are well established remedies for contempt of a federal court order.

It’s tricky when the lender retains its lien on the property.  It’s a central tenet of bankruptcy law that liens pass through bankruptcy unaffected, unless the court takes specific actions to alter the lien.

So, homeowners want monthly statements after their bankruptcy.  New rules even require it.  But those statements have to be correct and consistent with what the lender told the court under Rule 3002.1.

Relief and recompense in court

The bankruptcy court can award an injured debtor  “appropriate relief”.  That certainly includes attorneys fees and costs.

It can include an order determining that the loan balance is what the lender first said, or the court later determined.  It’s unclear whether the debtor can recover damages for emotional distress or other kinds of economic injury.

If the court finds that the servicer violated the discharge injunction, a wider array of sanctions are available.

But to get relief, you have to get to court.  And you have to get there with evidence.

So, save each written communication you get from the servicer after your bankruptcy case closes.

Keep a log of any phone contact with the servicer.

  • Who called you?
  • What did they say?
  • Were they trying to get you to pay?

The more detail you capture, the more compelling your story is in court.

If this happens to you, contact your bankruptcy attorney.  If the attorney who handled your case doesn’t feel confident with these kinds of cases, ask for a referral to a lawyer who does.

More

Watch out for mortgage modifications

Claim a deduction for mortgage arrears paid in Chapter 13

Getting the truth from mortgage servicers

 

 

 

 

 

Life After Bankruptcy: What’s It Really Like?

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life after bankruptcyWhat’s life really like after bankruptcy?

Everyone suffering through financial difficulties wants to know whether filing bankruptcy just trades one form of pain for another.

Will you be shut out of the American dream forever?  Unable to function in a world centered on electronic payments?

Here’s a collection of our best stories and advice on the world of your fresh start.

Your credit heals

Damaged credit improves over time, just like wounds heal. A credit report is not like a wine glass that once it’s broken, it’s gone forever.

 

after bankruptcy8 Tasks after bankruptcy

You’ve still got work to do after your bankruptcy to enjoy your fresh start.  Figure out where you are, money wise, and apply the lessons of the debtor education class you took to get the discharge.

 

after bankruptcyRenter to homeowner
Even with generous California exemptions, this aging client had nothing coming out of bankruptcy because she had nothing going in. Three years later, she’s a homeowner.

 

debts after bankruptcyDealing with debts that survive bankruptcy

A few unsecured debts can’t be discharged in bankruptcy; it’s a short list.  Some liens are your assets remain a charge on the collateral for that lien, but not on your new acquisitions.

 

car loan after bankruptcyGetting new wheels
How do you hold on to your ride, or replace your aging car after bankruptcy? Understand the impact of a shedding debts through bankruptcy.

 

bankruptcy discharge has teethDefending your discharge

The bankruptcy discharge is a federal court order;  it has teeth.  If creditors ignore your right to be free of collection efforts, you may have to bite back.

 

life after bankruptcyBankruptcy can be a life-changing event, for the positive

Life after bankruptcy can be what you make it.  You get a chance to make some new choices and to strip some sources of stress from your life.  How will you color it in?

More

Is it better to just keep making minimum payments?

Secret alternative to bankruptcy

How debt makes you dumb

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Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700

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