How long have you stayed in your home?

[justbroke]

The attorney told me that if I respond, I can delay everthing a little longer. All it will do is buy more time until the bankruptcy is filed. That's all I want to do. I don't want to ignore it.

Yes, by answering, you can delay it a little. However, if you affirm everything in the lawsuit, the lender's attorney may still ask for a summary judgment.

The answer will cause some delay. how much, is dependent on how backed up that particular court is. In my Fort Myers Florida example, the CNN article stated that they had over 30,000 cases backlogged. However, they were getting through up to 1,000 cases per day. They called it the "Rocket Docket".

I also want to add that you can ask for an extension of time to respond, rather than a response. Generally, this gives you 30-60 days more time to answer the complaint. You would ask for discovery and validate the debt during this time... to cause delays. This is all dependent on your particular Court and how they handle foreclosure actions and whether they allow extended time to answer a complaint.

I slowed down mine by asking for an extension. It slowed it down by 60 days, at which time the lender asked for a summary judgment. I then filed for bankruptcy about 30 days after that.

[debtmonster]

I slowed down mine by asking for an extension. It slowed it down by 60 days, at which time the lender asked for a summary judgment. I then filed for bankruptcy about 30 days after that.

Can you cut and paste the exact letter you used so all of us can see the wording?

[justbroke]

Please know that this must be served upon the Petitioner and/or the Petitioner's Attorney of Record, and filed with the Clerk of the Court. You need a standard certificate of service as well.

I can't make any guarantees that this will work for you in your particular case, circuit, or Court. You will have to read up on your local laws on how long the response date is pushed out, if you motion for an extension of time to respond.

You always need a good cause for the time to respond. You'll see that mine was because the lender (Petitioner) asked me to wait for their response on a modification. However, they were still moving forward with the foreclosure. This did buy me some time in my particular case.

Notice that I don't confirm or deny any part of what was in the Complaint. In other words, I don't answer the Complaint while asking for an extension to answer.

---------------------------------

Clerk of the Court
123 Court Street
Anytown, USA 12345-0123

Petitioner:
SOME BIG BAD BANK

Defendant:
JUSTBROKE, et al

Re: Case # 99-99999

The above titled DEFENDANT in the above titled case asks the Court to extend the due date for filing of a response to Count 1 in the Petitioner’s complaint. The DEFENDANT asks for the court to consider that;

1. DEFENDANT seeks to remedy and cure the deficiency in the mortgage with the Petitioner or its Agent; and
2. DEFENDANT has submitted application to Petitioner for a modification of the aforementioned loan, and seeks to await a decision by the Petitioner.

DEFENDANT prays upon the court to extend the date to respond to the NOTICE OF LIS PENDENS served on JANUARY 1, 2099 to JUSTBROKE.

[debtmonster]

Thanks for posting that. The letter I was served with also says "Complaint and Notice of Lis Pendens in this lawsuit".

Should this be the kind of letter I need to submit to the court in writing?

The thing is, I am not looking to remedy and cure the deficiency in my mortgage, or am I by doing the Ch. 7?

Should I use a letter like this being that I'm doing a Ch. 7 or is the response you have only used for a person wanting to keep their house?

[justbroke]

Thanks for posting that. The letter I was served with also says "Complaint and Notice of Lis Pendens in this lawsuit".

Should this be the kind of letter I need to submit to the court in writing?

The thing is, I am not looking to remedy and cure the deficiency in my mortgage, or am I by doing the Ch. 7?

Should I use a letter like this being that I'm doing a Ch. 7 or is the response you have only used for a person wanting to keep their house?

All I can say is that what I wrote was true at the time. That was my reason for asking for an extension of the time to file an answer. At that time, I had already waited 2 months for an answer on the modification. I was informed that they don't actually look at the modification, until 2 weeks before sale.

[sivuh5]

Another point to consider is that just because you've been foreclosed upon, that doesn't always mean you must move out. I have a friend who stopped paying in April 2007. Yes, you read that right, 2007.

He was foreclosed by Countrywide in September 2007 and the property was auctioned in May 2008.

He still lives there. He has not made a mortgage payment now for nearly two years and no one has ever asked him to move out. Countrywide contacted him after the auction and asked if he would be willing to do a "work out", he said yes, that he wanted to stay in the house.

But, to this day, a workout has never happened, he has not received anything formal from Countrywide, and they never call.

He's just pocketing the money and biding his time until some day, when the economy straightens out and he really does have to move. But in the meantime he's staying put and I think the bank is actually happy to have someone there maintaining the property.

Just an fyi.

[debtmonster]

If that happens to me, I will be SO THRILLED!!!

[myhearts07]

That would be great to get that long to stay in the home. I would like to have at least $50K when we get out and if not, I would be glad with $10 or $20K..

[debtmonster]

I spoke with my attorney. She said many people here are able to stay in their homes for about 12 months. So that means I have until about Feb. 2010.

I went over our income and stuff for the past 6 months. She said I will probably need to file in July since my Christmas bonus screwed up the means test.