Question re: surrendering home

[marinah]

Hi, we just filed a joint Ch.7 pro se yesterday. Overall, it was a relief. (especially after filling out all those forms!!!) We are letting the house go to foreclosure, and stated that on our Statement of Intention.

My question is -- do I need to send that Statement of Intention out to my two mortgage lenders right away, or can I wait until after my 341? I'm afraid that if we do it now, they won't be restricted by the automatic stay and will start foreclosure proceedings immediately. We don't have the money to move yet, and would like to stay in the house as long as possible. What is the best way to stay longer?

[keepmine]

Personally, I'd send the statement just prior to the 341.
How long you can stay just depends on the length of the legal process in your state. In a judical foreclosure state, you'll have 6 months or more. In a nonjudical foreclosure state it can be faster.
Once your bk is discharged, they can proceed with foreclosure {if they don't file for relief of stay first}.

[Duke89]

I would not send anything to your mortgage lenders and let them find out your intentions through the bankruptcy process. We surrendered our house in bankruptcy and we never sent the lenders anything. We filed in October 2008. It took them 6 weeks to get the paperwork in order with the court just to have a hearing to waive the automatic stay and we are just now getting letters stating that they will be moving into the foreclosure stage. We still have 30 days before they even put the house up for auction and after they do that it has to be listed for at least 30 days. We made our last mortgage payment in July 2008 and it's now March 2009. I think it will be April or May before the house is taken from us.............that ends up being close to 8-10 months between the time we stopped making payments and the time the property is taken.