Find a Rental NOW????

[Inthestorm]

Please be nice, I'm in pain.

DH saw atty. in Spring, long FREE meeting. I didn't take off work, HUGE mistake. Atty. wants $200 to answer my questions, so I'm asking here before we decide how to proceed. Passed means test for Ch. 7. Were told we could keep the house. We are still current on mortgage and equity line, but think we want to give up the house, as it is our biggest expense. Our house is large and we have amassed a horrific amount of junk. We want to rent a smaller home with land to keep our animals. These kind of properties are very scarce around here. We are considering going to look at one today, but we haven't even filed yet. The pros to securing this rental would be stop paying mortgages, start paying rent (much less) and start moving/throwing crap out...GRADUALLY. Purging this mess is going to be the worst nightmare we have ever encountered (we have no family to help.) We think this would be less painful than waiting till the end, scrambling to find this rare kind of rental property, hiring moving co. (more expensive). Again, paying the rent on the new place plus utilities at BOTH places would be cheaper than paying the two loans we have on our current home.

Any reason this is NOT a good idea? We have thought of some, but would like other opinions.

[jribe]

if you're positive you filing for BK- go for it. You don't want to keep the house, and as you said the rentals you need are hard to find.

If you stop paying the mortgage now- you'll likely have 3-9 months before anything happens foreclosure wise.

The only thing is that - will you pass the means test with the lower rental amount?
I would take a look at that- just in case. You don't want to have too much DMI and then you can file

Please be nice, I'm in pain.

DH saw atty. in Spring, long FREE meeting. I didn't take off work, HUGE mistake. Atty. wants $200 to answer my questions, so I'm asking here before we decide how to proceed. Passed means test for Ch. 7. Were told we could keep the house. We are still current on mortgage and equity line, but think we want to give up the house, as it is our biggest expense. Our house is large and we have amassed a horrific amount of junk. We want to rent a smaller home with land to keep our animals. These kind of properties are very scarce around here. We are considering going to look at one today, but we haven't even filed yet. The pros to securing this rental would be stop paying mortgages, start paying rent (much less) and start moving/throwing crap out...GRADUALLY. Purging this mess is going to be the worst nightmare we have ever encountered (we have no family to help.) We think this would be less painful than waiting till the end, scrambling to find this rare kind of rental property, hiring moving co. (more expensive). Again, paying the rent on the new place plus utilities at BOTH places would be cheaper than paying the two loans we have on our current home.

Any reason this is NOT a good idea? We have thought of some, but would like other opinions.

[Inthestorm]

Why would the rent matter on the means test? It wouldn't be something we own and are obligated to pay off...? What is DMI? (sorry, I probably know but am having a panic attack)

[mtbc]

On Schedule J you list your expected expenses going forward, within certain somewhat-local rules. If it leaves too much Disposable Monthly Income after being deducted from your Schedule I income (may differ from your B22A income), the trustee can then argue that you should be converted to Chapter 13 because you will have some money with which to pay creditors.

[music12]

i don't have anything to add to the postings above, except: on this forum, you don't have to ask people to be nice we are nice, because we have been through it one way or another.

[Inthestorm]

I do appreciate nice. People haven't always been nice on other forums, in fact, it seems there are always some trolls lurking just for the purpose of preying on the distressed. Makes them feel powerful, I guess.

So.....most ppl wait to find their rental until after the discharge or just before? I have become aware of some of the pitfalls of renting and it is rather frightening. The rentor may turn their nose up at a Bk, they may not be paying the mtg. and get foreclosed and you get thrown out, etc. This makes it REALLY scary when you're looking for a rare type of property!

[Rob517]

Hi, in some districts you cannot claim the house payment on your means test if you will be surrendering the home in bk. So you replace that amount with the amount of rent you anticipate paying out when its time to actually file. That's exactly what I had to do. My mortgage was 1250/mo. But since I was giving it up, when I filed I had to claim my new condo rent of only 685/mo. When I filed I had not signed my lease until one day after filing and that allowed me to leave my landlord off of the notification list. This was at the advice of my attorney. As mentioned previously, make sure you don't have too much disposable income left over that would be availble to pay your creditors or you may be in a chapter 13.

We are here to help so take a deep breath and try to calm down....we know the feeling.

[jribe]

Why would the rent matter on the means test? It wouldn't be something we own and are obligated to pay off...? What is DMI? (sorry, I probably know but am having a panic attack)

you get a housing expense; it would be the mortgage (if you're keeping the house. In most BK districts you can't use your mortgage amount if you're not reaffirming) or the amount of a rental.

DMI= disposable monthly income

Take a look at the legal consumer's means test to put in your figures and give yourself a better picture. I don't think i can post a link here, so just google "legal consumer means test".

[SPalin]

Everyone has their own needs and level of risk so this is just mt experience. I have looked at rentals (house, condos and apartments) before being discharged to see what my options are. I have a large dog 65 lbs and cat, the cat wouldn't be a problem, but Harley the Shar Pei might be due to his weight, I have been upfront with the owners/management companies that I have filed bk due to income loss and will be surrendering my house. Most all said they understand and have seen this more and more with prospective tenants. Seems to be the sign of the times... Only one landlord said flat out no Bk, I didn't like his personality either so no great lost, anyway for me I had to see what I could get after Bk and then decide what I was going to do.

I can currently walk to work, which is nice but the neighborhood has gone downhill in the past three years and that's not just the property values! Since Chase sent me a trial loan modification offer of $160 more than my current payment, I have made the call to stay put stop paying the mortgage and pocket the money for the move in about 6-9 months after discharge (since the central valley of California has so many foreclosures it will be longer than most areas). A coworker has not paid her mortgage in over a year and she is still in her house and was discharged in Nov 09, she also has Chase.

Since you have animals and need acreage moving before might be a good thing and least your settled in and will not have to worry about finding a new home i a short amount of time. I did file Ch 7 with the intention of reaffirming the mortgage to meet the the means test. But, after the letter from Chase on the loan modification and what was available to rent and that property values are still declining and will another year or two... at my 341 meeting the Trustee asked me my intention on the house and my reply was to surrender it. The trustee response was that was a very good call considering that your over 60% underwater on the value of your home to the what it is worth!

[killinstinct]

What state are you in?

Most places foreclosure takes months and months and months. We stopped paying almost a year ago and moved, surrenderred our house in BK, but it's still just sitting there. We're in Washington State.

If you were in our shoes, then, concievably you could move, but take the next 9 months or longer to SLOWLY sift through your junk in the old place. I.E. move the important stuff, animals, etc, ASAP, and leave the rest of your crap there. You've got months, if not a year or more, to get it out of the place. Free storage.

Plus, if you file, everything is part of the BK estate anyhow and you're not supposed to get rid of it until the Trustee says they're done with you.

[hurtininaz]

We moved into a rental prior to filing bk. The reason for the move was I knew I was going to lose my job and wanted to get a place before I couldn't. That being said: we were slowy moving out of the larger house when the bank "secured" the property. What that means to me: they changed the locks, went through my stuff and took what they wanted. Do not move out slowly, I lost a lot of my things. Claiming the loss on insurance won't work either because the trustee will take the money coming to you in the claim. As for timing: the lock change was in July, bk discharged in November, the house is still mine until March.

[Inthestorm]

We are in GA. Everything is different everywhere!!!

[Rob517]

We moved into a rental prior to filing bk. The reason for the move was I knew I was going to lose my job and wanted to get a place before I couldn't. That being said: we were slowy moving out of the larger house when the bank "secured" the property. What that means to me: they changed the locks, went through my stuff and took what they wanted. Do not move out slowly, I lost a lot of my things. Claiming the loss on insurance won't work either because the trustee will take the money coming to you in the claim. As for timing: the lock change was in July, bk discharged in November, the house is still mine until March.

I agree, since you will have abandoned the property I wouldn't waste too much time moving your important belongings.

On a side note....how does that work if your home is still in your name/has not sold at auction, and the bank changes the locks on you with your property still inside? Can you break into your own home to get the property? If you are the legal owner is this a crime? I have never read anyone doing this.

[SPalin]

I know in California until the Mortgage Company files a Notice of Default with the county and then 90 days pass before the Bank is the owner of the property, the Bank cannot change the locks on you until after those 90 days are up. In the mean time it is your responsibility to keep up the home and maintain the insurance and taxes, your also liable for anyone getting injured on the property, so that is one major reason I'm staying until after the NOD is filed. It is so interesting how each State and each District does things differently.

[Inthestorm]

I guess only so much info can be gained here since the laws vary so much by state. In general, is there a requirement about what you leave with your house? After 25 years of accumulation, we thought about just leaving whatever we don't really need instead of hiring a small army to do away with it. I had seen a program on Oprah about the situation in California and how someone started a business of coming into the homes and cleaning out the left-behind belongings. But that's California...