Keeping my house in Oregon

[jacqui]

My husband and I have decided to file bankruptcy but are confused as to which avenue to pursue. so i have a few questions for all of you!

We have about 50k in credit card debt, we were current on our payments until this month when we made the decision to stop paying (was either that or not eat). our income is only about 2k above the median but due to our mortgage i believe we pass the means test. we have $50 at the end of the month after expenses

Our issue is that we would love to file a chapter 7 if we are able to keep our house.
Our mortgage is about $215,500
value is ranked on zillow at about $215,000
and on yahoo at $189,000
would they make us liquidate our home for a possible $500-$1000?
We are completely current on our mortgage and will continue to pay it.


we have two cars which we completely own. Both are worth less than $1000. we don't have much else of value other than maybe a tv worth a couple hundred and some instruments. How detailed do you have to get with your assets?

we would love to do this pro se if we can be assured we will keep our house
otherwise how is everyone coming up with the lawyer expenses? Are payment plans common?
do you think i would be better off doing ch 13?
thanks in advance!

for what it's worth we are in Oregon

[ecsclb1724]

here is the link to oregon exemptions... looks like you have a 30K home exemption

http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/OR_exemp.htm

if you go pro se you need to do LOTS of research beforehand. It was a 4 month research process for us before we filed pro se and the paperwork is grueling, but if you have no assets, and nothing tricky, its douable.

Most people use the money they have from stopping their credit card payments for a lawyer, I believe. Chapter 7 payment plans do not happen because all debts are wiped out, which would include any lawyer debts still owed after filing.

[WhatMoney]

Oregon homestead exemptions have been increased to $40,000 and $50,000.
Most of the web sites still list older laws. Some even claim $25,000 - a major problem with legal info from the web - pages are seldom revised to keep up with the present laws.

On Friday, June 26, 2009, Oregon Revised Statute 18.345(d) motor vehicle exemption value increased to $3,000 per person. The legislature also amended the Oregon homestead exemption to allow $40,000 for a single debtor and $50,000 for a married couple making a joint claim. Oregon eliminated a former distinction between a mobile home located on land that is owned by a third party, a mobile home on land owned by the debtor, and a house built with a foundation on land owned by the debtor. Under prior law, different and lower amounts were allowed for mobile and floating homes. With these important changes, more Oregon debtors will be able to protect their homes from creditors.

http://www.hillsborobankruptcy.com/content/view/329/38/

[jacqui]

thanks so much for all of the help! it is good to know that i have a cushion with my house. So what is your opinion on filing pro se? I realize it will take a lot of research and work..but do you feel i have a good easy case for it?

I really just do not want it to be possible to lose my house. we would survive if they took the cars/ electronics. How do the assets work? Does someone come inventory our stuff or do we just make a list of our valuables? What counts as valuable, do we have to inventory every knicknack and picture frame? How about appliances? Just a little nervous. I would love to be able to avoid attorney fees if at all possible but not at the cost of risking our house.

I have one more question
we have our banking through US Bank. We have checking, savings (though both are near empty) a overdraft line of credit maxed out at $1,200 and a credit card with a balance around $13,000. Is it necessary to switch our bank and do you think the overdraft would be included in the bankruptcy? Will it be scrutinized as much as a credit card. For the last few months there has been 100's of dollars bouncing back and forth between our overdraft and checking account to cover other bills and get us to payday etc.....plus it would automatically transfer $200 if we overdrew our account.

I really appreciate all of the help from those who have been there. Thanks again!

[GettingGoing]

thanks so much for all of the help! it is good to know that i have a cushion with my house. So what is your opinion on filing pro se? I realize it will take a lot of research and work..but do you feel i have a good easy case for it?

I filed ch7 pro se but my wife and I were way under median for our state. If we had been over median I dont know that I would have attempted pro se. My advice is to set up some free consultations with an attorney and get free attorney opinions on if you would qualify for ch7.

I really just do not want it to be possible to lose my house. we would survive if they took the cars/ electronics. How do the assets work? Does someone come inventory our stuff or do we just make a list of our valuables? What counts as valuable, do we have to inventory every knicknack and picture frame? How about appliances? Just a little nervous. I would love to be able to avoid attorney fees if at all possible but not at the cost of risking our house.


The trustee can send someone to take inventory of your assets however this almost never happens. You need to list everything you own but like I said, you can group items in categories.

I have one more question
we have our banking through US Bank. We have checking, savings (though both are near empty) a overdraft line of credit maxed out at $1,200 and a credit card with a balance around $13,000. Is it necessary to switch our bank and do you think the overdraft would be included in the bankruptcy? Will it be scrutinized as much as a credit card. For the last few months there has been 100's of dollars bouncing back and forth between our overdraft and checking account to cover other bills and get us to payday etc.....plus it would automatically transfer $200 if we overdrew our account.


If you have accounts with a bank that you also owe money to it is always a good idea to take all your money out of that bank and put it in a bank that you have no relationship with.

I really appreciate all of the help from those who have been there. Thanks again!

..

[WhatMoney]

thanks so much for all of the help! it is good to know that i have a cushion with my house. So what is your opinion on filing pro se? I realize it will take a lot of research and work..but do you feel i have a good easy case for it?

I really just do not want it to be possible to lose my house. we would survive if they took the cars/ electronics. How do the assets work? Does someone come inventory our stuff or do we just make a list of our valuables? What counts as valuable, do we have to inventory every knicknack and picture frame? How about appliances? Just a little nervous. I would love to be able to avoid attorney fees if at all possible but not at the cost of risking our house.

I have one more question
we have our banking through US Bank. We have checking, savings (though both are near empty) a overdraft line of credit maxed out at $1,200 and a credit card with a balance around $13,000. Is it necessary to switch our bank and do you think the overdraft would be included in the bankruptcy? Will it be scrutinized as much as a credit card. For the last few months there has been 100's of dollars bouncing back and forth between our overdraft and checking account to cover other bills and get us to payday etc.....plus it would automatically transfer $200 if we overdrew our account.

I really appreciate all of the help from those who have been there. Thanks again!

I'm not a Ch. 7 guru, so the means test question I'll not answer. There is also a pro se forum here to ask questions if you do this yourself.

If you stop paying off your US Bank overdraft line of credit, that is, you default on it, the bank will setoff anything you owe them from your checking and savings accounts. As a nationally chartered bank they are not supposed to setoff your credit card debt with them. However, before you stop paying your US Bank debts, you should close out all your checking and savings accounts and open them with a different bank where you have no debt or loans. If you are overdrawn on your checking line of credit and do not pay it off, they will probably not allow you to close the checking account. They will close it only if you include it in your BK.

Also, if you default on a checking account overdraft line of credit, they will send your name to ChexSystems, making it difficult to open a checking account at any other bank for five years. So get your new accounts set up before you default at US Bank. Ideally you should pay off your overdraft line of credit account instead of including it in the BK, since you will not blemish your banking record that way.

[bktmom28]

We too filed in Oregon but we surrendered our home. We were 40K in debt on credit cards and were drowning just trying to keep a roof over our head. We are currently awaiting closing, going on 9 months in June. We were 60K underwater on our mortgage with an ARM that was set to adjust this month. We walked away via the advice of our attorney. We never had anyone come do an inventory of any of our assets and we were well below on the means test. After we filed and had not made our house payment for almost 3 months we received a loan mod application in the mail, which we had already attempted to do, and were denied, but they wanted to work with us after the fact, but we were done and did not want to deal with it.
As hard as it was losing our home, we knew that we needed a completely clean slate. We had intended on selling our home 2 year agos, when the market tanked. Not sure where you are located, but when I called the Bankruptcy court in Eugene, the clerk there told me that Oregon is way backed up on bankruptcy filings and they are moving pretty slow. Just thought you might like to know that. We are almost a year into not being in our home, and it still sits vacant. Makes me really sad that mortgage companies aren't doing more to help. We hadn't even thought of filing pro se and I am so thankful we didn't. We too had a very simple case, but just knowing that our attorney has been there as a buffer between us and the TT, is a wonderful feeling. Anyway, if you have any questions, you can pm me. Good luck to you!