Chapter 13 Lien Strip Questions-FL

[LoveMySinbad]

Good evening all. I hope someone can answer hopefully a straight forward question for me. We have a first mtg that we just successfuly modified with BOA for $532K. Same day we got the mod papers, I rec'd a call from my local bank that has our HELOC stating that they are not renewing them any longer and that they will be converting them to 15 yr fixed at 7.5%. Ours is $113K interest only at prime. So of course we cannot afford this new much higher payment. She tells me there is nothing she can do, they won't work with anyone. Loansafe.org suggested we stop paying and do a chapter 13 lien strip. I am having a hard time finding out if we would qualify for such a thing. The house definately would value wise...it's not even gonna appraise for what we owe on the first. However, we do have other assets. We have a secondary residence that we have been trying to sell unsuccessfully for over 3 years and a fairly large mortgage receivable that is due to ballon this year. However, the balloon is very questionable, because the folks have been extremely late on payments for the last year. We may end up foreclosing on them.

We also have about $40K in our bank account. I would really rather the HELOC lender work with us on this loan than try to strip it, however, if they are not going to offer any type of payment we can afford, I don't know how we can do anything but not pay it. If we do not qualify for the lien strip, what are our options? I don't see them foreclosing and taking on the big first mortgage.

I just need some advice here to figure out which way to go and how to negotiate with the bank. I've tried calling several BK attorneys in my area, but cannot seem to just get an answer on the phone.

Can anyone give me some basic info on whether we would qualify or not and if we do, what is the process? Thanks

[bkstuff]

I can't give advice about qualifying for the CH 13 with that much cash...but I think you are right - just don't pay for the second if they do not work with you. Make sure your money is not in that bank. You may need to go to some face-to-face interviews with attorneys to get some of your questions answered. That is what I would I do in your situation.

[LoveMySinbad]

BKstuff, thank you, yes, we have already moved the funds out of that bank when they started this threatening about how they would "renew" the HELOC. I guess I will make an appt. with a local attny and hopefully get some better information from him. thanks for the reply

[LoveMySinbad]

forgot to add, most of the money we now have in the bank is from the payments we did not make while waiting for the first to modify. Although we could not afford the whole payment, we were putting back as much as we could just in case it didn't get approved. They then rolled all of that plus escrows into the mod, so we felt very fortunate to have an "emergency fund" now back available.