Florida Chapter 7: Form 108 ("Redeming vs. Reaffirmation Agreement vs. other")

[James33111]

I file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the end of May 2016 and is in the process of amending the forms for re-submission. A little background:

Property owned:

Single family house - Homestead (Mortgage balance ~ $23K, plus $20K deferred payment loan forgivable after 10-years; no monthly payment required over this 10-year period). The Home is worth about $160K.

Single Family house - House is in foreclosure, with final judgement. The Final Judgement Amount amount is ~$220K, with City Liens of about $250K (Total of about $470K!!). That property is worth about $258K - $300K. The property was about to be auctioned on June 1, 2016. This property has me as the only individual on the mortgage, but technically the property was Quit-Claimed to another individual a few years ago and that currently individual lives in the home.

A leased car with an approximately 13 months left on the lease.

I would like to keep the Homestead property per existing terms with the mortgage company (did a modification a few years ago after 2-years of unemployment). I do not want to modify the existing terms of the mortgage on the Homestead property. Would like to surrender the non-Homestead property that is in the final stage of foreclosure. Would like to keep the existing leased car until the lease expires in a year.
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On Form 108 the questions is what do I want to do with the properties list above:

A. Surrender the property.

B. Retain the property and redeem it.

C. Retain the property and enter into a Reaffirmation Agreement.

D. Retain the property and [explain]: ________________________

What should be the appropriate response for the Homestead Property? I was leaning to Option "C" ("Retain the property and enter into a Reaffirmation Agreement."), but I'm not sure this is the appropriate response in my case.

Also, for the lease car, the question is "Will the lease be assumed" (Yes or No). Not sure what the correct answer here.

[LadyInTheRed]

I have no idea what it means for a mortgage to be "forgivable" and how that would affect your bankruptcy. Is it automatically forgiven after 10 years? If so, how did you get that deal? If not, what are the circumstances under which it would be forgiven. It seems to me that every loan is forgivable if the lender wants to forgive it.


Please read the following post by a BK attorney on reaffirming mortgages: http://www.bkforum.com/forum/before-...-very-bad-idea

I can't tell you how to fill out the form, but it sounds to me like you want to retain the home and continue to pay the mortgage.

Assuming a lease is basically the equivalent of reaffirming a loan, except that I don't think you have to enter into an agreement to assume a lease.

It sounds like you filed pro-se and have run into problems. If that is what is going on, I highly recommend you get some legal advice. Your questions suggest you filed BK without first learning everything you needed to know.