Okay folks, if anyone would like to take a stab at helping me out on a very convoluted BK and Tax question, would appreciate any insight. First some background.
We filed a 7 in May, discharged fully in September, 09. We owned a home and basically were told that the bank would foreclose and sell in October by their attorney's via mail. We then moved out and rented a place to avoid being homeless when the house sold, and they went ahead and assigned a realtor, changed the locks, turned off utilities, etc. So far so good.
During this time preceding the BK, we had attempted to short sell with their permission, and two offers were rejected eventually. So foreclosure after BK appears to be the way they wanted to go. Our realtor, however, found out after we moved out that they "suspended" the foreclosure sale and still 4 months later have not OFFICIALLY foreclosed. They did not contact us with this suspension, so we would not have known if our realtor had not still been trying to short sell the house during our BK. In other words, we could have been living their rent free still.
So the question is this - Even though we paid no mortgage or anything else during 2009 and our runup to Chap 7, would we still say we owned a home in 2009 or have anything to do with a house in 2009 for any taxes or interest (Again, we officially paid nothing and we were discharged from note)? If they haven't foreclosed and were paying our property taxes, I have no idea but I assume they are since we've never received a bill. We have not received any type of form from the Bank relating to discharge of debt either. In effect, though we are cleared from having to pay for the house, we technically still own it and could live in it until they actually kicked us out (that's how I see it anyway). We have no desire to do that, but still, I don't see how a bank can keep this threat of foreclosure hanging over us forever. I want to be done with it one way or the other.
My BK attorney is no help since we "let him go" when he charged us an "additional" 2500.00 over the course of the proceedings without telling us until we got the bill (for every call, email, or letter written on our behalf at 350 per hour - what a joke).
So I have no idea whether we should file as if we "owned" a home in 2009 or not. I would assume I could go spend hundreds at HR Block but I"d rather not if someone with knowledge can grasp this situation. I may have no choice but to bite the bullet, but if anyone wants to take a stab at this, I'd appreciate the information. Like I said, it's a big mess still. Thanks much.
We filed a 7 in May, discharged fully in September, 09. We owned a home and basically were told that the bank would foreclose and sell in October by their attorney's via mail. We then moved out and rented a place to avoid being homeless when the house sold, and they went ahead and assigned a realtor, changed the locks, turned off utilities, etc. So far so good.
During this time preceding the BK, we had attempted to short sell with their permission, and two offers were rejected eventually. So foreclosure after BK appears to be the way they wanted to go. Our realtor, however, found out after we moved out that they "suspended" the foreclosure sale and still 4 months later have not OFFICIALLY foreclosed. They did not contact us with this suspension, so we would not have known if our realtor had not still been trying to short sell the house during our BK. In other words, we could have been living their rent free still.
So the question is this - Even though we paid no mortgage or anything else during 2009 and our runup to Chap 7, would we still say we owned a home in 2009 or have anything to do with a house in 2009 for any taxes or interest (Again, we officially paid nothing and we were discharged from note)? If they haven't foreclosed and were paying our property taxes, I have no idea but I assume they are since we've never received a bill. We have not received any type of form from the Bank relating to discharge of debt either. In effect, though we are cleared from having to pay for the house, we technically still own it and could live in it until they actually kicked us out (that's how I see it anyway). We have no desire to do that, but still, I don't see how a bank can keep this threat of foreclosure hanging over us forever. I want to be done with it one way or the other.
My BK attorney is no help since we "let him go" when he charged us an "additional" 2500.00 over the course of the proceedings without telling us until we got the bill (for every call, email, or letter written on our behalf at 350 per hour - what a joke).
So I have no idea whether we should file as if we "owned" a home in 2009 or not. I would assume I could go spend hundreds at HR Block but I"d rather not if someone with knowledge can grasp this situation. I may have no choice but to bite the bullet, but if anyone wants to take a stab at this, I'd appreciate the information. Like I said, it's a big mess still. Thanks much.
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