What happens to me if I never signed an agreement to reaffirm my mortgage?

[CarrieAnn]

I declared Chapter 7 BK in Feb, 2007, discharged in May 2007. I kept making my mortgage payments trying so hard to keep my home. Applied for HAMP and was told I qualified and had my first mortgage payment lowered $266 a month. Paid that on time for 9 months. Called the mortgage company monthly to find out the status of my application, as I only received the original packet of paperwork to send in my financial statements. I was told keep on paying the lower payment, you'll receive paperwork. The paperwork I received was a Notice To Foreclose. I had to pay $2427, the difference between the original payment and the lowered payment. Borrowed that money and had to go back to the original payment the next month. I had the house on the market for 6 months but I owed more than it was worth and nobody even looked at it. Finally, I couldn't keep up with the payments. I notified the mortgage companies by Certified Mail on Sept 1st, 2010 that I would vacate the property on Sept 30th. I was able to rent something that I can afford. The house was put back on the market in July, but still, nobody came to look at it. I never signed a reaffirm agreement and the BK atty told me to just leave, there was nothing that could happen to me. I believe my real estate agent is trying to start a short sale. I hired an attorney to represent me and notify both mortgage companies that I was unable to continue to pay and that I was willing to do a deed in lieu of a foreclosure. The attorney has the deed.

I saw my credit score and it's 648. The first mortgage says "foreclosure proceedings started" and the second mortgage says, charged off in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Does this mean that my credit won't be hurt any worse than it already has by the BK? I've not paid anything late except the mortgages. Gosh, can it get any worse?

[keepinitreal]

I'm so glad for you that you didn't re-affirm. What happened to you is a good lesson to us all not to re-affirm our mortgages because we may not be able to keep the payments up a couple of years from now.

Now the lender can't come after you for any deficiencies once they sell your house.

[dspii]

If you did not reaffirm and your lawyers say's your OK, both mortgages should read IIB - Chapter 7. They can't report anything that happened post BK that was included in BK.

[Peeps]

Those Bat Rastards. Maybe you should accidently pee on the keys before sending them back.

A couple of other posters in the forum have noted their credit score took a double hit between their BKs and eventual foreclosures. If that happens, you could possibly get the reporting consolidated once the bank makes its final notations. Maybe they'll change it to the bankruptcy designation when they close everything out. If not, you could request a correction to reflect the BK and maybe things will boost up a bit.

[CarrieAnn]

Thank you all for easing my mind a bit. I thought I did the right thing by getting an attorney to represent me when I left the house. I left it in excellent condition and left the extra keys and garage door remote controls on the kitchen counter. The one thing I didn't do was have a plumber come in and winterize the plumbing simply because I couldn't afford it. I thought by notifying the mortgage companies, I was now holding them responsible for any damage to the property. My real estate agent knew someone who specialized in short sales. I believe he would rent out the house, whether until it was forclosed upon or what, I'm not sure. He did mention short sale. I gave her the key and heard nothing for 3 weeks. When I called her to ask what was going on, she said that his attorneys thought that there would be a problem because I notified the mortgage companies that I was vacating. They said I could have stayed there for propably up to 2 years without making a payment, but I couldn't do that. I'm almost 68 years old and just the stress of thinking that maybe next week I'll be told to vacate made me sick. I tried to do what I thought was the right thing.

I do know that every month when I got my statement to pay my mortgages, there was a paragraph about how this is not to collect a payment, only a statement for my use. Yet, every month I sent that payment in on time. This would tell me that both mortgages were included in the BK proceedings. Now, how can they foreclose??? Makes no sense to me, but I thank God that I did not sign that Reaffirmation Agreement CitiMortgage sent me! I guess if my credit score takes a hit, so be it. As long as neither mortgage company can come after me, I did the right thing by leaving. There were weeks where either I paid the mortgage or I ate. Nobody deserves to live like that.

I'm so thankful that I came across this site.......you people are truly wonderful and if there is something I can do to help someone else, I certainly will!