Are you facing foreclosure? Do you want to keep your home? Are you trying to stop foreclosure? If you are one of the thousands of Americans who find themselves behind on their mortgage, there is help for many of you. However if you follow the advice of “money experts” you may be left unprepared since [...]
August 2008
The income guidelines for bankruptcy eligibility are changing for cases filed October 1, 2008. The census bureau has announced updated median income figures, which are expected to be adopted by the U.S. Trustee for the bankruptcy means test. If Kansas is typical, the income guidelines increase slightly. For example, the guideline for one Kansas earner [...]
Foreclosures are being stopped because the purported mortgage holder cannot prove it holds rights to the mortgage. Those cases do not remove the mortgage entirely, but only stop the foreclosure. More can be done. Section 506 (d) of the Bankruptcy Code will permanently void a mortgage if the claim is disallowed. This can be easier than you [...]
Mortgage modifications can hurt. Here is a summary of a very recent study on mortgage modifications by Alan M. White, Assistant Professor, Valparaiso University School of Law, with my emphasis added. “The gist is that voluntary mortgage modifications are not reducing principal debt, and are in fact increasing it, and that many modifications are not [...]
Here are six arguments to stop a foreclosure: 1. The Truth In Lending Act (four states have their own approved versions; in MA it is the Consumer Credit Cost Disclosure Act) allows for rescission, if there are defective disclosure. Rescission requires repayment of the principal amount borrowed, less all payments made. In the old days, [...]
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act covers letters to an attorney and not only to the consumer. This is not commonly understood, yet it can add dollars to your ultimate recovery. The Supreme Court’s benchmark decision, which ruled that attorneys are subject to the FDCPA, was itself based upon a lawyer-to-lawyer settlement demand for a false [...]
