How to prolong the foreclosure process after Chapter 7

[tools2teach]

My wife and I filed for Chapter 7 and will be discharged within the month. We are currently up to date on our mortgage. We did not reaffirm our mortgage in the Chapter 7. We are giving up the house, but we want to live in the house as long as we possibly can to maximize our savings. Can someone chime in on tactics we can use to squeeze every month without paying?

[calgirl67]

We are in the same boat. First of all, DO NOT contact them. Wait until they contact YOU. It may be months before someone in their BK department picks up your file and realizes your mortgage has been discharged and your case closed by the trustee. Then play their game. Tell them you called about getting a loan mod and have been waiting for the packet to be sent to you "is that why you are calling"?

Then start applying for loan modifications. You will keep on getting denied so just change the figures and keep applying. When that option exhausts itself (could be 4-12 mths), apply for a short sale and use the same tactics. Do NOT call them, do not wake sleeping dogs, always let them call you.

Eventually, somewhere down the line, probably 9-12 mths if you are in a high default state and play the game right, you will get served a notice of default, and 90 days after that a notice of sale. Technically 30 days after that they can auction the house. Depending on what state you are in you can get 15-90 days after that even and they have to evict you.

Best of luck and try and at least out in savings some of what you outlayed over the years into what I assume is now a semi-worthless property!

[car67]

I went in the 7 came out fresh discharge Dec 09 No Reaff on the mortgages
I cant afford the second been paying only the first... Have applied for Mod got denied for Hamp last week. I am still keeping the first current and will see what the second does in due time.... If you got two mortgages you can play that route to save money so far its working here. Pay the first force the second to do something? Something is to be determined...... 6 months later

[tools2teach]

Thanks you for taking the time to respond. I'm located in Orange County, CA and my mortgage is through B of A formerly Countrywide, just give you some background to our situation. We live in a area that is pretty desirable and my main concern is that the banks will accelerate the FC process because they know they can recoup their money pretty quickly. I could be wrong, but if we could get away with 9-12 months, then we would be happy campers.

I found this site to prolong the process, but not sure if this would apply to California. The article states you can prolong the process by going through the court system, I don't the legalities, but it does make sense. Have any of you gone this route by showing up in court to fight and prolong the process?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1834089/discover_how_to_stop_foreclosure_without_pg2.html?cat=17

[calgirl67]

No this will not in any way apply to you. California is a non-judicial state, meaning they do not use the court system to foreclose, they can just issue a notice of default and then go ahead and appoint the trustee to sell the property at auction. Sorry to dash those hopes.

I would think you being So Cal they will take a long time to get around to you as they are swamped with foreclosures in CA. Remember don't wake the sleeping dog. DO NOT contact them.

[SMinGA]

Wait until they send notices that they are preparing to start the FC process - and then contact them to request an inhouse modification. Even if you have no intent of staying in the house - they stop collection activity while processing the mod application.

Inhouse does not take too long - I just completed it w/ BofA (formerly countrywide) in less than 2 months. But had I not returned my paperwork, etc. I don't know how long it would have taken them to resume collection activity.

[lolie]

We are in No. Cal and surrendering our home in a Chapter 7. We filed our 7 March 31 had our 341 May 4 and are due for discharge on July 6. Chase Mortgage just had a hearing yesterday to lift the automatic stay. So... I'm waiting to see if they knock on our door today, July 1, with a NOD. We only stopped paying our mortgage after we filed for Chapter 7. We were never late on our payments, but we are 250K underwater and don't see the point in keeping it. Chase does know we are surrendering. Our attorney sent a letter to our lender notifying them and asking them where and when to send the keys.

My only advice is to avoid sending anything to the lender if you choose to stay longer.

Good luck to you.

[tools2teach]

Does your attorney help you out with the process of prolonging the process? I met with a paralegal who was referred by a friend. She said she would do all of the leg work (speak to the lender, load mod, short sell), she said if we played our cards right, we could get a additional 6-10 months extra with no payments. We wouldn't have to anything. Have any of you heard of this kind of service and do bk lawyers help you out post bk? I know mine doesn't.

[momtoroxy]

Lolie- After our Ch 7 was discharged, we got a notice that Chase wanted to lift the automatic stay (kinda lame, since the BK was discharged). That was back in MARCH! We have not heard a peep. Of course, now we are moving back to California (from Vegas) and WANT them to foreclose. Go figure. When I spoke with someone at Chase they gave me the run around and said "you aren't even close to foreclosure, it has not even been sent to an attorney yet!"

[nervous1]

Thanks you for taking the time to respond. I'm located in Orange County, CA and my mortgage is through B of A formerly Countrywide, just give you some background to our situation. We live in a area that is pretty desirable and my main concern is that the banks will accelerate the FC process because they know they can recoup their money pretty quickly. I could be wrong, but if we could get away with 9-12 months, then we would be happy campers.

I found this site to prolong the process, but not sure if this would apply to California. The article states you can prolong the process by going through the court system, I don't the legalities, but it does make sense. Have any of you gone this route by showing up in court to fight and prolong the process?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...g2.html?cat=17

If your area is "desirable," have you tried to sell the property yourself?

[DeadManCrawling]

We played BoA at their own game, sort of.

When we first stopped paying, we wanted more time like you do. So, we waited until they contacted us. Then we requested a mod. We then waited a month or two until they contacted us about the mod paperwork. We faxed in part of it, but not all.

By the time they contacted us again, they requested NEW mod paperwork, because more than 30 days had elapsed. We sent in part of it. They lost that and requested it again. We sent in part of it. They then called to request the remainder.

We sent that in, but by then ANOTHER month had elapsed and we had to start over.

And so on. Ad infinitum. They were pretty bad about losing the paperwork on their end, and we did all we could to assist the effort, from our end.

21 months. Now, I wish they would get moving. We bought a new place and haven't lived at the old one for 7 months.