Green Tree trying to collect after house that went thru Chapter 7 foreclosed

[anne71]

I filed BK in 2009. Basically only a house went thru. The house was with Bank of America and I thought foreclosed in 2011. Then I got notification that the house was transferring to Green tree which then foreclosed in 2013. I sent the info to my attorney but he never really answered me. I since then have been receiving Hang up calls from Green Tree, a bill for over 50k that said nothing to disregard if you have filed, I have been receiving notices to get insurance, and now a 1900 bill for insurance. The attorney that I used finally has agreed to meet with me next Friday as he had already sent letters to both green tree and Bank of America to leave me alone. I even called them last month to stop it. I told him this was harassment and has been going on for years. Especially when the house was foreclosed per the paper work I received from the registry of deeds. When I search the house, it says preforclosure. Some place it appears someone screwed up. I don't want to pay another fee to the lawyer as I feel he should have followed thru from start to finish. It was an easy BK as only a house and a small balance (because I had it) went through. I had a divorce and then company buy out, so felt I had no other option on a house I could no longer afford or sell. Tried to sell for over 5 years. Has anyone been successful in a law suit for harrasment from a bank and screwed up paperwork?

[keepmine]

This is a violation of the permanent injunction that prohibits collection activity post bk. Many people have been successful with these sorts of complaints.

[LadyInTheRed]

I don't want to pay another fee to the lawyer as I feel he should have followed thru from start to finish.

Your attorney will probably charge you to represent you against GreenTree, and he should. If he sent out letters to Green Tree and Bank of America and didn't charge you, that was a courtesy, unless that kind of work was included in your fee agreement which would be unusual. It is not your attorney's fault that GreenTree is violating the court's permanent injunction against attempting to collect a discharged debt. If GreenTree is found to have violated the stay, the court very well may force them to pay your attorney fees. If your attorney files a complaint against GreenTree, make sure he includes attorney fees as damages.

[anne71]

Do you know how much the fine is, and would it even be worth it? Has anyone tried to pursue action on their own? I figured if I don't take some action, it's going to continue and what happens when my BK falls off my credit, I am nervousness they will try to sue me. It is almost like I did not file. I have not lived in the house for about 7 years and left it in great shape and winterized.

[keepsmiling]

1k per, definitely worth it!
Hope you kept good recs.
Find a boot camper atty, they specialize in this.

[justbroke]

The chief judge in the Florida Middle District gave a sanction to Bank of America for calling and mailing and generally harassing a debtor. The debtor documented 80 calls. (That did not include the calls before the attorney sent multiple letters to Bank of America). The judge awarded $1,000 for each documented call. The judge also awarded attorney fees!

The judge then said that if one more call went to the debtor's phone, then the judge would issue punitive damages, which are normally 2:1 in our Appellate Circuit.

Crazy, but these creditors do some bad things and violation of the automatic stay or the permanent discharge injunction is no joke. The stay and injunction are the foundation of the entire bankruptcy process. This is why judges are not happy when they read about them.

[Slingerland]

jb, did B of A pay the fine, or did they appeal it?

[spidge]

Sorry to hear of your challenges. BofA did not answer or file a claim on the 2nd we are stripping in our 13 so now we get to pay the attorney fees to require an answer, so that is $2k on top of the additional fees for a lien strip at the beginning of the 13. This is just like a penalty on me in my opinion, but I know the judge is attempting to make sure the lender has been served properly.

Good luck.

[beachmomoc]

I'm sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. We just recently discharged a chapter 7 non-consumer and included a house that was in foreclosure. The bank and their attorneys 2 weeks after discharge filed for summary judgement on their foreclosure complaint which includes asking for a personal deficiency judgement and attorneys fees on a discharged debt. We are in Az, house in in IL. We had an IL attorney working on the foreclosure, he said I have no ideas why they are doing this and then told us his work for us was over as this was becoming to complex a case for his firm to handle (it was taking up too much time). Our BK attorney out here said they can't get a deficiency judgement on a discharged debt, but he can only drag them into AZ BK court for violating the injunction if we want to pay him the considerable amount to do so. So today we had to hire another attorney in IL to try to sort this out, our foreclosure hearing is in September. We just want the house gone, but the bank simply will not give up on trying to recover their money. We assume they figured we wouldn't fight anymore, or wouldn't notice, or they just don't care. It sucks, not much of a fresh start.

[keepsmiling]

beachmom, welcome to the forum!
Try looking at this from a different perspective... this is an income-producing opportunity, and you don't have to do all that much! Keep records.
Look for a consumer protection attorney or a bk attorney who IS A BOOTCAMPER. Look it up. These are people who specialize in just such situations. Of course the fact that you in a multi-state situation complicates things. No advice there, sorry.
Maybe Despritfreya, who is an AZ bk atty, would like to chime in?

[justbroke]

jb, did B of A pay the fine, or did they appeal it?

They did not appeal within the 14 day period.

[MikeW]

This is real interesting. I could find my self in the same situation when I'm finally out of the home.

I need to bring this up to my attorney. Is there any way to prevent this in advance of foreclosure? Is there a specific step that needs to be performed to finalize the foreclosure? I want to make sure this is covered in my annual fee. If he has to defend me past the foreclosure, I wonder if there would be additional fees - or if it would be covered until the 1-year contract runs out.

[keepsmiling]

Mike, you are paying your attorney by the YEAR?
Generally these post-bk things are not covered under the original contract. There is no way to prevent them.
But, seriously....I'd look at it as a fairly easy buck! Kind of a gift horse actually. Payback even, if you will.
It's all in your perspective I guess!

[MikeW]

Mike, you are paying your attorney by the YEAR?
Generally these post-bk things are not covered under the original contract. There is no way to prevent them.
But, seriously....I'd look at it as a fairly easy buck! Kind of a gift horse actually. Payback even, if you will.
It's all in your perspective I guess!

Thanks keepsmiling. I'll take you word for it. If anything crops up post bk, I have this thread bookmarked. Bootcamper is what I'd be looking for. And I have the feeling I will because GT is also my lender. I'm still going to bring it up to my attorney when I renew, just to see what he says. It is a 1-year contract - a foreclosure lawyer, different from who I used for bk.

[beachmomoc]

Thank you Keepsmiling. We have hired another attorney in IL to deal with the bank's attorneys. If they don't back off, we will have our BK attorney reopen the BK and go after them. We just want the house out of our names. We have been trying to unload this house since 2008.