Questions about 2nd mortgages.

[MOQuestions]

Ok, like everyone else that is posting in this forum, we are in financial trouble.
My wife and I purchased a house in early 2002, fall of 2002 we discovered that the roof over half of the house was starting to buckle, so of course we refinanced, took all of the equity available in the house and paid of all credit cards and fixed the roof.
Now, once again, all cards are maxed out, aprx $11,000 in credit card debt, have 2 new car payments of aprx $870/mo total, and a 1st and 2nd that equal aprx $1000. We're just in bad shape, at this time we are current on all debt, but have aprx $3000 property taxes due at end of month and no way to come up with it.
My question is, if we file chptr 7, can only the 2nd be discharged and we reaffirm on the 1st? Or will we lose the house, as the 2nd is with the same lender?
Also, if we stop paying on the house does anyone know aprx how long before a lender will start foreclosure and if we file BK can a foreclosure even be started?
We're tempted to just walk away from the whole mess and start over, this is not the 1st BK for either of us and we're tired of trying to fix what we've broken so badly.
Any insights would be appreciated.
State of residence is Missouri.

[EdytaHome]

I belive the 1st and 2nd mortgage are tied together and you can't discharge just one. As far as the forclosure, I'm waiting to see what happens. Dec. is the 2nd month I'm behind on my mortgage, I hope to file in mid January. I'm affraid that forclosure will begin and I'll be kicked out of my house. My lawyer says that once we file that will stop forclosure, than after we're discharged we still will have another couple of months before the mortgage company will evict us. This is good news to me because I don't want to move in the middle of the winter in Michigan. Good luck, I'll post so everyone knows how my mortgage situation goes.

[MOQuestions]

Thanks for reply.

Hope everything goes well for you.
Yes, was aware that filing stops foreclosure but wasn't sure how quickly a mortgage company would actually start proceedings.
Good luck, would definitely hate to move in winter in the north country.

[HHM]

I don't know MO law specifically, but foreclosures anywhere take time; plus, you will generally have a right of redemption during the early phases of foreclosure and you can file BK anytime during the foreclosure to stop it. Whehter your second mortgage can be discharged depends on the value of the house. If the 2nd mortgage is wholly undersecured (i.e. the house is worth only the amount of the first Mortgage), you may have a shot to discharge it as a general unsecured debt, but you can expect a pretty tough, and expensive, fight. However, that scenario is unlikely. In which case, you will have to stay current on both in order to keep the house. (there are other ins and outs, but the preliminary question is, how much is your house worth?)