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Mortgage Forbearance And The Hidden Gotcha: Escrow

By Cathy Moran

escrowed taxes forbearance

Got a mortgage forbearance? Seems like a relief. But watch out for the normally escrowed taxes after the forbearance is up. The CARES Act made forbearance on federally backed mortgages available for the asking. But no one talked about the escrow portion of the skipped mortgage payments. Federal guidance urged servicers to offer easy ways […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2020, covid-19

No Foreclosure If Loan Modification In Process

By Cathy Moran

The cruelest trick played on homeowners trying to modify their mortgage was dual tracking. One side of the bank assured the borrower that their loan modification application was being considered and they didn’t need to worry. All the while, the other side of the bank was conducting a foreclosure sale. The borrower wakes up to […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

DIK Remedies For Foreclosure Breed Bankruptcy Tragedies

By Cathy Moran

Warning: virulent outbreak of do-it-yourself bankruptcies all around. Symptoms:  panic over prospect of foreclosure Supposed remedy:  file your own skeleton Chapter 13 bankruptcy Prognosis: enjoy the stay for about 2 weeks, followed by foreclosure relapse Homeowners facing foreclosure Three different would-be clients called in a 10 day period this month, facing foreclosure.  And all three […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2019, automatic stay, foreclosure

Don’t Trust Anything Your Lender Says On The Phone

By Cathy Moran

mortgage servicer

Don’t trust the loan servicer for a moment, was my advice to the client who was trying to track payments he’d made on his home mortgage . The mortgage industry has created an inhabited accounting swamp around your home;  the lender’s representative lives in that swamp. Don’t turn your back on a carnivorous predator. I’m […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2019, foreclosure

Bankruptcy Debtors Entitled To Monthly Mortgage Statements

By Cathy Moran

monthly mortgage statement

Servicers must now send monthly mortgage statements to borrowers in bankruptcy under a new CFPB rule effective April, 2018.    Thus ends, we hope, years of uncertainty and indifference, rooted in the automatic stay and a homeowner’s ongoing obligation on their mortgage after bankruptcy. The earlier version of the rule, adopted in 2014, allowed servicers […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2018

Sloppy Mortgage Servicers Prey On Borrowers

By Cathy Moran

banks behaving badly

  Given the way they behave, you’d think mortgage servicers actually flew a pirate flag over their operations. They cash your check for the mortgage payment, then who knows what they do with it and what they credit it to. Outside of bankruptcy, screw ups in handling your payments are a breach of the contract […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017

Bankruptcy Judge – Umpire In A Robe?

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy judge

The most powerful tool for debtors fixing things is the bankruptcy judge. My friend bankruptcy lawyer Doug Jacobs explains the difference between the bankruptcy chapters available to individuals this way: Chapter 7’s fix things;  Chapter 13’s allow debtors to fix things. Kinda like the difference between grabbing a quick shower and spending a week at the […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Is Home Equity A Substitute For Retirement Savings

By Cathy Moran

Home as retirement savings

My home is my retirement plan. If I had a dollar for every time a client said that, I could retire today. But that approach to funding your old age only works if…. Sell your house to retire The value in your house makes your balance sheet strong, but doesn’t put food on the table […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017, home equity, retirement

Chapter 13 Discharges HOA Debt

By Cathy Moran

HOA debt discharged

Condo fees that come due after a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is filed are discharged at the conclusion of the case. In a victory for condo owners, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the more expansive Chapter 13 discharge trumped a bankruptcy statute sticking condo owners with the fees. Or really, this is a […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2018, HOA

Feds Offer Deferral Option For Home Mortgage Payments

By Cathy Moran

save house

Homeowners with federally backed mortgage loans got a lifeline for payments skipped under COVID 19 home loan forbearance agreements. The feds have mandated that servicers offer deferral as one way to repay those payments that came due while the loan was in forbearance. Deferral results in the missed payments being added to the back end […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

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Bankruptcy Basics

About The Soapbox

You’ve arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said “try”).

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions. We dig deeper into how to consider bankruptcy and navigate a bankruptcy case.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

What Happens To Your Bank Account in Chapter 13

Those considering filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy worry about "what happens to my bank account?" Will the trustee take all the money? How do I pay my living expenses after I file? The short answer is: nothing changes. The account remains yours and available for all the expenses of day to day living. Because, … Read more

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