Bankruptcy! I don’t want to file bankruptcy! Hey, if you do want to file, there is something wrong with you. But you want to keep your house? Avoid foreclosure? Which option hurts more: losing your home, or, filing bankruptcy? We humans make decisions based on our emotions: we shy away (or run, if you are [...]
Real estate
Colleague Dana Wilkinson calls it “foreclosure limbo.” You made the difficult decision, accepted reality, you cannot pay your debts, and, even filing bankruptcy, cannot keep your condo. Or, like one of my clients, the condo you bought for your son’s family, which they could no longer pay. Whether in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or Chapter [...]
(picture from University of Pennsylvania blog on regulations) The most common question I get for a long time is what happens if I do not, or cannot, pay my mortgage? If you can afford to continue paying, and are current, there is really no bankruptcy alternative. The so-called “strategic default” option is to simply stop [...]
Proprietary mortgage modifications, not HAMP mortgage modifications, lead the way according to HOPE NOW Loan Mod statistics. 120,000 modifications have been done by the mortgage companies themselves, compared to only 27,840 HAMP mortgage modifications, compared to HAMP has been, and remains, a gigantic government failure. It was supposed to lower the foreclosure rate. There are [...]
Judicial mortgage modification, also known as mortgage cramdown, would NOT disrupt the residential mortgage lending market, but would prevent home foreclosures Says who? Says a Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study just released.. See the L. A. Times article by Lew Sichelman for a more readable explanation of mortgage cramdown. Judicial mortgage modification, NACBA‘s euphemism [...]
I’ve been thinking of some of the bizarre things I’ve seen creditors do lately. You’ll find a lot written about abusive creditors, mean creditors, heartless creditors, and law-breaking creditors here at Bankruptcy Law Network. But what about stupid, self-destructive creditors? It’s obviously bad to violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or the Bankruptcy Code’s [...]