2nd mortgage dilemma

[crystald1156]

Chapter 7 discharged August 2012. We stopped paying the 2nd mortgage (owe approx $14,000) after discharge. Have been keeping the payments current on the First mortgage.

We listed (in schedule d) that the home was worth $170,400. The first mortgage outstanding balance is approx $188,800 and the second mortgage amount owed it $14,000. We have been told that since our home value was not contested by the banks in bankruptcy, basically both are considered underwater. My question is what will the 2nd mortgage holder do? (Onemain / Citifinancial) We had been working with an agent trying to get them to settle for approx $1400 but they came back with $7000. We told them nope that we werent going to do that. So we are just waiting.

Here is the weird part. I pulled our free credit reports (first time since discharge) and nowhere on the reports is onemain / citifinancial listed as the 2nd mortgage. I quadruple checked. Nowhere. Now I know it was there before we filed because I pulled the credit reports just before filing so I could see for myself exactly what all was on them! Are they just going to deny we ever had a loan?

I did notice that Citifinancial / Onemain are in the National Foreclosure settlement deal. Not sure that will play into it or not, but I just cant figure out where the credit listing is at. It disappeared!!!

So what are the odds that they may just forgive the debt since it would cost them more to foreclose than what they would ever get from foreclosing and selling the house? Perhaps they are going to come down to our settlement offer.

[TBA]

i wish i had the answer to that, but i just dont know. I think every situation is unique. I know the odds of a second starting foreclosure proceedings is damn near nil when the house is underwater (common sense here - if the house is worth less than the first, at sale, the second gets nothing and spent all the legal expenses selling it...)

Maybe someone else has a bit more experience.

I can say that we are in mid dist of fl and reopened our bk to strip the 2nd. idk if they are doing that in va yet?

[subking]

We haven't heard anything from our second since we were discharged. Were completly underwater so I don't expect to hear anything, I wouldn't even worry about it.

[LadyInTheRed]

If they forgave the debt, they probably would have let you know. Your credit reports are not a reliable way to determine what the creditor will do about the debt. Because the debt was discharged, they probably just removed it from your credit report to avoid any claim of violating the permenant injunction against collection activity. I belive the National Mortgage Settlement had limitations if you filed for bankruptcy within 1 or 2 years. But, call the mortgage company and ask if you are eligible for forgiveness under the settlement. The lenders involved in the settlement are required to spend a certain amount of principal foregiveness. I am sure they prefer to forgive underwater discharged loans if they can.

[catleg]

You should probably visit your county land records office/website and see what has been recorded against the property (mortgages, assignments, etc). It could be you're in that murky area in which it doesn't pay either side to fight it now but the 2nd lien will just sit there on the property and eventually have some value once you pay down enough on the 1st mortgage balance.