Foreclosure

We received a copy of a letter from #1 mortgage holder stating that their rep will appear in court 4/04 to have the automatic stay lifted (we converted from 13 to 7). I assume this in step #1 for them to start foreclosure.

I have been reading posts that differentiate between "giving up the property in a Chapter 7" and a foreclosure. I am totally clueless about all this and was wondering if there should be something we should be doing. I read that a foreclosure looks really bad on a CR.

The only late payments ever on this mortgage was when we filed for conversion to Chap. 7 and the lawyer said not to pay either of the 2 mortgages. In fact, we had been paying all mortgages with no lates since we bought our first home in 1988 except for Household, which we were going to sue but had to declare bankruptcy instead.

Please let me know what is happening to us at this point and if we should be doing anything. Our lawyer says no but I've noticed a lot of BK lawyers don't really want to be bothered much over and above just filing the necessary papers.

Thanks much!

Do you want to keep the house?

No. It needs too much work plus it carries two very bad predatory loans on it at 9.9% and 14.5% respectively (always check your credit reports and FICO scores, folks! We didn't and were badly taken). The house is upside so no equity.

We should have listened in the beginning and filed Chapter 7. But no lawyer we consulted told us we didn't have to get out right away. At any rate, in checking PACER it shows that the 13 was officially converted to a 7 earlier this month with the OK of the trustee.

We already found a house to rent. I know we can stay here without paying but it's no picnic. The hot water keeps cutting off in the middle of washing my hair :(.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

I don't know how long foreclosure takes in NJ. It really is something your lawyer should know. Don't follow advice from people in other states.

How about asking the lender? They know.

And only YOU know whether you'd rather pay rent instead of living in the house until they foreclose and then evict you.

My friend told me about a site that offers free assistance to people in your situation. They offer all kinds of solutions. I hope this helps you.

http://www.kmtpartners.org/cgi-bin/d.cgi?save-5484

I see you said you want to get out of the house. That company also offers help with that. There are ways to get out.

http://www.kmtpartners.org/cgi-bin/d.cgi?sellhome-5484#equity

Good luck to you.

I checked out the website very quickly, and will go over it more when things aren't so busy today.

Don't know if the fact we filed bankruptcy already will affect things, as well as some major repairs that need to be done. But those are issues to be discussed with this firm.

I appreciate both you and Christine taking the time to answer my question. This is a very harrowing time for us. Thank God the rental house is extremely nice, in a great neighborhood and we can even take our pets with us.

Will let the board know of any actions we take or that occur. Of course, our lawyer would be consulted so that we don't mess anything up. We are getting close to discharge, which I believe should be in June sometime.