Just served summons, need advice about BK

[cereber0s]

I'm in Florida, and I was just served a summons after about 6 months of missed payments. So I have the normal 20 days to respond. But I have a question about filing for bankruptcy.

See I had never planned to do that. The house was breaking us, and since we stopped paying the house, my other debts have become somewhat manageable. I don't have any intentions of trying to save the house, but I am scared of a deficiency judgment. I have no assets except a 401k, two crappy cars one of which is broke down, and the clothes on our back. So will filing for bankruptcy do anything for me? Is that a strategy I could use to help if I get slapped with a deficiency judgment? Including student loans I have about I guess 25k in debt, but like I said since I stopped paying the house I have some breathing room. I notice a lot of members here file for b/k, and I'm wondering if it would do anything for me.

It sucks we don't have the protection rules like they do in California. [sigh] if only I knew then what I know now...

Edit: I realize I'm asking about bankruptcy in the foreclosure forum, but I will be in bad shape as a result of foreclosure, so I figured I could get better advice here

[cereber0s]

ttt, if no replies this time then I'll just let this die.

thanks.

[justbroke]

I'm in Florida, and I was just served a summons after about 6 months of missed payments. So I have the normal 20 days to respond. But I have a question about filing for bankruptcy.

Did you receive a summons or a Notice of Lis Pendens?

So will filing for bankruptcy do anything for me? Is that a strategy I could use to help if I get slapped with a deficiency judgment? Including student loans I have about I guess 25k in debt, but like I said since I stopped paying the house I have some breathing room. I notice a lot of members here file for b/k, and I'm wondering if it would do anything for me.

I don't know what your overall picture looks like. There is some legislation to help with the deficiencies on the home should that come to past. (Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act). However, that's if they forgive the deficiency by issuing a 1099-A/C.

The lender may just sell the deficiency to a Junk Debt Buyer (JDB). These are piranhas in human form.

It sucks we don't have the protection rules like they do in California. [sigh] if only I knew then what I know now...

Well, California had really really off-the-chart housing prices (worse than Florida), and they really had no choice but to protect their citizens.

What you need to do is sit down and look at all your numbers. Look at the best case and the worse case and compare them. Filing Bankruptcy just to cover a deficiency... may not be a good idea.

With only $25K of unsecured debt including student loans (I wonder what the split is?) isn't really much to use such a powerful tool on (Bankruptcy being the broad sword).

Many questions... how upside down on the house are you? What is your exact unsecured debt (less student loans)? What is your annual income? What is your household size?

[kjd1231]

I have a lot of questions that would need to be answered.
I sent you a PM.

[cereber0s]

Thanks for the reply justbroke (I guess I missed your post). I actually received a summons, but when I check the public records on the County website, when I viewed the image it said Lis Pendens...but I actually never got a copy of that...only an actual summons that someone delivered...it's weird, maybe I missed something.

I see what you mean about bk being a really powerful tool. We're upside down around 75k, maybe 100k. Our debt is about 15k less student loans, do Hospital bills count as unsecured debt? If so then add about 10k more. And then it's actually about 15k of student loans, which were in deferment during grad school until end of last year. We've got a household size of 4, with the possible addition of one more (in-law), with 75k income. Change my first post to "two crappy cars TWO of which are broke down" lol. Sometimes you just have to laugh. btw this is a great site, the people here have been there done that, some other sites out there, the people have knowledge but not actual experience.

[justbroke]

Yes, your hospital debt is unsecured. So I guess the real question is what are you planning and when are you planning to do it? Are you interesting in keeping the house? Do you have two or more mortgages on the house? What's it worth?

[limage]

I am in Fl too. I stopped paying my Citi mortgage back in Nov 08. I recieved the summons in the middle of March. Nothing has happened since then- and I check the county website regularly.

Interestingly, Citi has started calling me several times a day again. I plan to take their call when they call again and Im not busy.

I plan to file just after Aug 1, but I have a funny feeling I will be living here "free" for several more months....or longer.

[cereber0s]

We're planning on surrendering the home. We are staying in the home currently, trying to save some money. We have a mortgage, and a heloc, that's the way they did it when we first bought the home, so the heloc is with the same lender (and this is our first home)...and actually today I checked my credit report and it had been "charged off"..so I had look up what that actually meant. By our best estimates and talking with some friends in the biz, our home is probably worth around 150k, which would put us 95k upside down. A house up the street from us, same floor plan/size, and actually a bigger yard just sold a few months ago for ~152k.

limage, the guy who served the summons (really nice guy btw), told us it's about 3-6 months from the time we get served to when we actually have to leave, depending on how fast things move. I don't know if that's average, or if he's talking from experience. I wonder why your bank started calling all of a sudden? I haven't had contact with mine for some time.

I could write a small book detailing the experiences communicating with our lender...I'm still very bitter about certain things (but that's a separate post all together ).

[justplaintired]

I would think seriously about contacting a good BK attorney and getting some free legal advice. While you're not paying a mortgage, you can afford to pay your attorney fees. Those are quite high sometimes.

I am sure you have realized you will be paying rent somewhere someday, are all those bills still manageable then? That is what you really need to think about. Someday, you will have bills for a place to live again, and when that happens can you pay your rent? Let an attorney guide you, consultations usually are free and nothing is more helpful then letting an attorney give you your options.

Good Luck