Got your bankruptcy discharge recently? The end of the bankruptcy case is the start of your new financial life. Now, you’ve got work to do to maximize that fresh start. Save your bankruptcy papers The bankruptcy schedules listed everyone you owed money to when you filed. Those creditors got notice of your case. The […]
Why I Hate Credit Reporting Agencies
If you have a couple of hours, I’ll count the ways. But this morning, it’s half truths and moralizing by Experian that gets me going. My fellow California bankruptcy lawyer Jay Fleischman published Experian’s explanation of how long your bankruptcy filing stays on your credit record. Chapter 13 bankruptcy is deleted seven years from the […]
Dead Debts Haunt Home Purchase
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s also the price of freedom from old debts, as my former bankruptcy client learned. He was about to close escrow on a new home a couple of years after his discharge. But the sale came to a screaming halt when an old, discharged debt reappeared on his […]
Zombie Debt is Naughty, Not Nice
Despite his bankruptcy discharge, my former bankruptcy client has just been bitten by naughty credit reporting, and the interim results aren’t nice. When several years passed since the bankruptcy, my client thought he’d caught and controlled the old and the inaccurate credit reporting. Four years after the discharge was entered, a mortgage servicer has just […]
Easy Ways To Avoid HOA Fees After Bankruptcy
After a bankruptcy discharge, your ongoing liability to your home owners association lives on. It’s the debt that won’t die. Bankruptcy discharge and HOA dues The bankruptcy discharge wipes out your personal exposure to unpaid, unsecured HOA dues owing when you filed your bankruptcy. If the HOA had a perfected lien, the lien for […]
Personal money management is complicated
My newest colleague in the Bankruptcy Law Network, Adrian Lapas, discussed the critical importance of developing a budget in connection with a Chapter 13 plan. Spend the plan payment on something else and your case may be dismissed. Budgeting for your post bankruptcy life is made more complex by a number of factors: Many people underestimate […]
Should You Keep Your Stuff After Bankruptcy?
The usual question for a bankruptcy attorney is “can I keep my (fill in the blank)”. Whether it’s a house, or a car, or a computer, clients want to know if filing bankruptcy will strip them of their “stuff” bought on time. Frequently the answer is that they can keep the asset as far as the […]
