BAC Mortgage and Bankruptcy: Can they adjust our mortgage terms?

[Midiman]

Hi,

We have our Ch7 341 meeting on the 20th. According to my credit report, BofA has already discharged our two credit card accounts with them. However, our mortgage with BofA's BAC Home Loans has been inaccessible online for weeks. I sent an email to them and they responded by giving me a Bankruptcy Department 800 number. This is a little unnerving as our mortgage was not included in our BK. We have a good fixed interest rate, about 30k in equity and have never been late. Can they modify our mortgage terms because of a pending BK?

Thanks

[justbroke]

Your mortgage (as well as all debt) is always included in your Bankruptcy. Now, if you're reaffirming the mortgage, then you will remain liable for the balance on the mortgage.

I don't understand what you're asking though. Are you current on your mortgage? Did you indicate that you're going to reaffirm your mortgage? Are you doing a ride-through? Do you actually want a modification of your mortgage? Have you applied for a modification?

It reads as though you just want everything to stay the same. It would. Unless you ask for a modification, they aren't just going to modify your mortgage.

[HakunaMatata]

Debts aren't officially discharged until your BK is discharged. Credit reporting will fluctuate throughout the process. Creditors are constrained by the Automatic Stay while you're in an active BK. They aren't permitted to attempt collection and it's common for online account access to be suspended. This appears to be occurring with you. You will likely have to obtain new payment process information (possibly mailing your payment to a different address). This won't affect the terms of your loan.

[SMinGA]

As justbroke pointed out, all creditors (anyone you owe money to) at time of filing are included. That means the automatic stay prevents all creditors from billing you & such. Mortgage companies (and car loans) typically revoke online access during the automatic stay. I think the reason given is to avoid appearing that they're trying to collect.

Call to find out where your payments need to be sent, the address was different for me, now that you are in the BK process. Your mortgage terms will not change, but the statements that come in the mail will have a comment about being informational purposes only, not attempting to collect a debt.