Walking away-do you literally do just that?

[Diesel73L]

We are probably end up walking away from our home post CH7 discharge. Unless I can get an attorney who has worked with my bank who can guarantee that we'll get a loan mod (I've been hearing a million reasons why they won't-we have PMI, etc...), I think we'll want to get out sooner rather than later after discharge so we can get a jump on starting over. I guess it sounds like a pretty basic question, but when you "walk away" do you just shut the utilities off, pull the moving van up, load it, and leave? Should we let the bank know? What about our homeowner's insurance? We're planning on stopping paying the mortgage and letting the bank foreclose-that way we can have a place to live while banking the payments and looking for a place to rent in the meantime, so they will see it coming.

My main concern is whether or not I could be held liable if, say, we ended up having to leave in the middle of winter and the electricity gets shut off-no electricity = no oil burner, no oil burner = no heat, which could possibly mean a frozen/burst pipe. Can they come after me for that? How about if neighborhood kids break in and start destroying things? This actually happened on the other side of our development last year-a foreclosed home had become a teen party hangout until the police got involved.

Finally, our house is pretty simple (1960s era two bedroom ranch) and we haven't really made that many improvements, but one major one was the installation of a wood burning furnace. It did not come with the home and I had planned on taking it with us-we probably won't use it wherever we rent, but my father can store it in his barn until we buy something. I'll patch the hole where it connected to the ductwork in the house as well as where the chimney exited the wall, and the regular oil heat will function as normal when we leave. The bank doesn't even know about it-only my insurance company and the town do because I had to pull permits and get a fire/insurance inspection for it. Obviously someone from the bank will inspect the home and it will be evident where the furnace was-will they hassle me over that?

I'm sorry if these seem like silly questions, but in essence I want to be sure that once we're discharged and we leave this home, that we're truly getting a fresh start and that nothing from the past will come back to haunt us. Our plan is to rent for three or four years until the BK/foreclosure becomes less of a factor on our credit report and to live as simply and frugally as possible so that we'll always have an emergency fund to fall back one once we do purchase another home.

[tobee43]

diesel, all i can relate to you is our experience. we were advised by our atty, to just lock it and leave and don't notify the bank. however, we did, i sent an email to the guy who had been working with us for about a year on a loan modification.

we left in the dead of one of the coldest winters ever. we shut off the water, secured the house. prior to that we put no trespassing signs (in nj that's VERY important) all over the grounds, and at every place posted the signs from all ways onto the property. we also had signs "enter at your risk", and took a ton of pictures along with that days news paper because i was paranoid .

we were not offered cash for keys or anything like that since we were right in the middle of our loan modification which was taking forever, when we got served a summons. well, it was either we had 30 days to answer or leave, so we called the atty, we knew we couldn't get the loan modification at that point, so we also knew we had to leave. we had already be denied 2 times and they the bank were resubmitting the paper work yet again, i'm certain just to say NO again. but it didn't matter, the same bank supposed to be helping us, served us at the same time.

on the insurance front, of course we were worried about liability, so we called nj manufactures, they said once we left the premises we could no longer insure the property and it's now the banks problem, i called a few others and they also said no as well, the reason being because we vacated our home, i don't know what they would have said had we been staying and not paying. also, please note, our policy was paid up through the following year since was paid via escrow. however, njm reimbursed us the entire amount paid to them by the bank, stating it's now their (the banks), responsibility since the summons was issued, and chase did, in fact put an umbrella policy for fire and hazard on the premises. also, they changed the locks and pad locks on all the outer buildings making it clear they had taken possession of the property.

i know many here believe you are still responsible for the insurance and hold liability. i'm not in agreement with some of my respected bk forum buds on this issue. ask your atty what he/she thinks. but my position is based solely if one vacates and is not living in the house.

no questions are silly really. as i stated, all i can do is tell you about our experience with the situation with our home in nj. we don't know what lays in the future as far as if they will even ever notify us if the house is finally foreclosed on. they know where we are, since i have tried a deed in lieu etc. to no avail. we did have two pieces of property the other bank did accept the deed in lieu along with a release form which i sent them for any liability they may be thinking about in the future. we haven't heard from them in 4 years, so i'm pretty certain that situation is done.

also, if chase comes now after my discharge to do a short sale or whatever, we are done, they can do it by themselves. i could care less, our credit report indicates the mortgage was IIB and that's that.

[Floridagail]

I hope your considering not walking until the bank sells the house at auction. You have a one in lifetime to save money and not pay rent or mortgage. We are doing a walk away. We are waiting out the bank forclosing. Depending on what state you are in, You may have a long wait to save your money. The banks do not want the houses back in florida anyway. We are on our 19th month since payment. Our stepson is 4 yrs out and his property is still in his name in florida. I was abit worried about finding a new place to rent with forclosure but I have been assured it is not hard to rent with forclosure here in florida. If the bankrupty is currently in process it may be harder. But once the bankruptcy is over no problem. Just pay deposit.