Post bankruptcy blues..... continued...

[rdmusc]

Yes. Given a discharge on C7. Reaffirmed on house and car. She took off with the car in early August 2011 along with a 22ft long uHaul truck that she loaded up with her stuff, which is OK, but an S-Load of community property. Probably had $8000 in equity on the car but since she took the car, I have not assisted in fulfilling this payment obligation nor the insurance. I am staying in the house which I purchased as a single man in 1988 (We got married in 2007 for all practical purposes). We refinanced in 2008 at 6.75 at 30 years, took the equity out and paid on other bills and then I put her name on the title since at that time I thought it was going to be 'until death do us part'. She quit her job in 2010 which was bringing in after taxes, 2000/mo. This is when things began to fall apart for us financially. I thought that she would secure other employment fairly quick but that didn't happen. In the 5 years that we were married, we ran up considerable debt. Stopped paying bills because the money wasn't there and in December, no longer had any money with my salary alone to continue making the mortgage payments. Latter July 2011, we filed joint C13. In the middle of this process, she wanted to bail on the marriage. Our C13 attorney told me that there was no way that I could pay on a C13. So it was converted to a C7 which was subsequently discharged. I am currently debating to what extent I should go after the community property. The end of the180 wait period for separation required in the State of Louisiana is rapidly approaching. At this point, I will no longer be responsible for any additional debt that she takes on. Then the divorce will be final 4 to 6 weeks after the filing.

I don't know if I will be able to keep the house, not having made any mortgage payments since December 2010. I can't believe the bank isn't bugging me about this. I do not want to pay anything just yet because I may loose the house anyway. Not sure how to approach the bank about this or just walk away from this and let them take it back. Ideally, I would like to refinance for a much lower interest rate, get her name off of the title and see if the bank will forgo the arrears. I've been told that this is not likely to happen. Any thoughts, anyone?

[LadyInTheRed]

Did you reaffirm the mortgage in your second Chap 7? Do you have any equity in the house? If so, how much?

You might be able to modify the mortgage and have the arrears and penalty added to the end of the loan. But, they are unlikely to forgive the payments.

[rdmusc]

If by reaffirming you mean that I would try to keep the house, yes. Equity in the house, I guess that would depend on how it would appraise right now, but if there was it would be <$15,000. I can manage existing payments of around $1100/MO but that wouldn't leave me a lot of room for anything else. Ideally, I would like to get the $142,000 at the current interest rates. Not likely to happen, I have been told by a mortgage banker, with a C7 on my heels. I was told that there would be a minimum 3 year waiting period following the discharge of the C7 and that this is a federal requirement. I didn't research this. Any bankers out there willing to help me with this, you are welcome to chime in.

continued.

[NoMoreCards]

Reaffirmation is not just trying to keep the house. Reaffirmation is a set of documents that gets filed with the courts, that really makes that loan is if the BK never happened. The documents are typically sent from the loan company, you sign them and they are filed with the BK court. This document basically says that you agree to continue paying for, or be held liable (if you don't pay). In essence, it makes that loan as if the BK never happened. It also means, if you do not pay that the loan company can foreclose and sue you for any deficiency after the sale. Reaffirmations are typically not recommended, as they can make it very difficult to walk away should your situation change. If you are not sure if you reaffirmed the loans, get a PACER account and check the documents. In order for the reaffirmation to be valid, it must have been filed with the courts. Simply checking the box that you intend to reaffirm is not a reaffirmation.

[df04527]

Be sure you understand the charges that are incurred for use of Pacer. A lot of people around here have gotten shocked at charges so fair warning if you are not aware.

[LadyInTheRed]

Reaffirmation is not just trying to keep the house. Reaffirmation is a set of documents that gets filed with the courts, that really makes that loan is if the BK never happened. The documents are typically sent from the loan company, you sign them and they are filed with the BK court. This document basically says that you agree to continue paying for, or be held liable (if you don't pay). In essence, it makes that loan as if the BK never happened. It also means, if you do not pay that the loan company can foreclose and sue you for any deficiency after the sale. Reaffirmations are typically not recommended, as they can make it very difficult to walk away should your situation change. If you are not sure if you reaffirmed the loans, get a PACER account and check the documents. In order for the reaffirmation to be valid, it must have been filed with the courts. Simply checking the box that you intend to reaffirm is not a reaffirmation.

RDMusic's response to this was:

continued.

NoMore:

Thanks. I recall a verbal that it was our intent to reaffirm but at this point, I have to plead ignorance.

I do have a pacer account and have DLd most if not all documents. Question about pacer access. Is it OK to browse that database for anything or does access suggest you are there to review only your docs?

[LadyInTheRed]

RDMUSIC,

You started a new thread to continue the discussion, which makes the discussion impossible to follow.

I combined your threads to one and moved it to "General Bankruptcy Talk".

I made matters worse by messing up when combining the threads and I can't undue my mess. That is why I posted one of your responses above. df04527's warning regarding pacer is now out of sequence. Sorry for the confusion.

[rdmusc]

Lady in the Red:

I had some difficulty in posting replies. I got 2 different error messages - 1 that said something that I had to wait 30 seconds between post and when I did that, I get a message that I need to have 15 postings before I can post links. The only way to be able to post again was to create a new thread and call it the same except add continue and #3. Not sure why this was. Very sorry for the confusion.