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Prevent Future Judgment Liens
Bankruptcy can prevent future judgment liens. It usually stops a lawsuit from turning into a judgment, and then a judgment lien on your home.
Judgment Liens Are Dangerous
Our last blog post was about how filing bankruptcy can sometimes remove, or “avoid,” a judgment lien from your home. This is a great potential benefit of bankruptcy if a judgment lien has already been recorded.
But it is often much better to file a bankruptcy case before a judgment lien hits your home’s title. Here are a few of the practical reasons why:
- You have to meet certain strict conditions to be able to avoid the judgment lien. If you don’t meet them, even bankruptcy won’t get rid of that lien on your home. You may have to pay all or part of the debt in spite of filing bankruptcy.
- Even if you succeed in avoiding the lien in your bankruptcy case, it is an extra step that can cost you more. And the cost can go up substantially if the creditor fights your lawyer’s efforts to avoid the lien. Besides higher lawyer fees, you may have to pay for a home appraisal and for the court testimony of the appraiser.
Which Type of Bankruptcy Is Right for Me?
In the United States, there are many different types of bankruptcies, some being for businesses, government sectors or individuals. If you are an individual filing for bankruptcy, the two most common types of bankruptcies that are filed are either Chapter 7, which is a liquidation bankruptcy, or Chapter 13, which is a reorganization bankruptcy. Each type of bankruptcy has its advantages and disadvantages, along with different sets of criteria to qualify for each type of bankruptcy. If you are unable to pay your bills each month or you are struggling to make ends meet, bankruptcy may be in your best interest. Choosing the right type of bankruptcy for your situation can be the key to your financial success.
Chapter 7 Basics
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is also known as liquidation bankruptcy. This is because all of your “unnecessary” assets will be liquidated to help pay off some of your debts before your debts are forgiven. Most unsecured debts, such as credit card debt, will be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, meaning you will no longer be responsible for paying them. It takes roughly three to four months to complete a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which is a relatively short time frame.
Bankruptcy Can Remove a Judgment Lien
Bankruptcy can, in the right circumstances, remove a judgment lien from the title to your home. Here are the conditions for pulling this off.
The Problem, and the Bankruptcy Solution
Do you have a judgment lien on your home? If so, the debt on that judgment is secured by whatever equity you have in your home. The debt is encumbering the title to your home, eating up your equity.
A judgment lien on your home gives the creditor holding the judgment lien legal rights against your home.
Those lien rights, those property rights, are similar to the lien rights of a vehicle loan lender. The lender is a lienholder on the car’s title. If the vehicle owner doesn’t pay the vehicle loan, the lender can repossess the vehicle. Similarly, a judgment lien holder on your home can, under many circumstances, foreclose on your home. At the least it can force you to pay the debt when you sell or refinance your home.
Qualifying for Bankruptcy in Texas
A bankruptcy can help by allowing you to discharge your debts and no longer be legally responsible for repaying those debts, giving you the chance to start over. This blank slate comes with a price, however. Filing for bankruptcy will affect your credit score and can make it harder to get future loans or credit cards. Nevertheless, for many people who are in financial trouble, there is no other way to remedy the situation but to file for bankruptcy. There are two types of bankruptcies that are commonly filed by individuals in the United States -- Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Each type of bankruptcy has its own way of helping those who are in insurmountable debt, with Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharging most or all of your debts and Chapter 13 reorganizing your debts into more manageable monthly payments. Qualification requirements also vary depending on the type of bankruptcy you choose to go with.
Bankruptcy May Strip Off a Junior Mortgage
Summary
Do you have a second or third mortgage on your home? Imagine if you could stop paying that monthly mortgage payment. Imagine over the course of the next 3 to 5 years paying only as much as you could readily afford to pay on the balance of that mortgage. This is often only a small portion of the mortgage balance. Or, if over that time you could afford to pay nothing, you’d likely pay nothing on that mortgage balance. Then at the end of that time, whatever you couldn’t pay would get completely written off. That’s what happens in a second or third mortgage strip under Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts.”
Qualifying to Strip Your Second or Third Mortgage
The economic environment that is most likely to result in stripping mortgages is one of declining or static home prices. That’s not currently the situation in most parts of the country. Yet, given the huge potential advantages, it’s still worth looking to see if you qualify.
Bankruptcy Stops a Property Tax Foreclosure
Bankruptcy can help if you’re behind on real estate taxes. Chapter 7 by getting rid of other debts, Chapter 13 by buying you lots more time.
Bankruptcy Stops a Property Tax Foreclosure
Filing either a Chapter 7 "straight bankruptcy" or a Chapter 13 "adjustment of debts" stops a foreclosure by your property tax authority.
Filing bankruptcy stops most forms of debt collection through the "automatic stay." In particular the automatic stay stops "any act to... enforce any lien against property of the [bankruptcy] estate" Section 362(a)(4) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The bankruptcy "estate" includes all assets that you own when you file your bankruptcy case. It includes your home.
A tax authority’s foreclosure for property taxes is the enforcement of the property tax lien. That foreclosure becomes illegal as soon as your bankruptcy filing imposes the automatic stay.
Chapter 13 Gives the Most Time to Cure Your Mortgage
Chapter 7 provides no mechanism to cure your mortgage. But Chapter 13 does provide a powerful, realistic, and practical way to do so.
Chapter 7 “Straight Bankruptcy” and Chapter 13 “Adjustment of Debts”
Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 are the two main consumer bankruptcy options.
Most Chapter 7 cases only takes a few months—usually 3 to 4 months—from filing to completion. A Chapter 13 case usually takes 3 to 5 years. At first this extra length of time may seem like a disadvantage. However Chapter 13 puts this time to good use, accomplishing things that you can’t under Chapter 7.
Essentially, Chapter 13 gives you the 3-to-5-year period to cure your mortgage, while protecting your home throughout that time.
The Chapter 7 Shortcomings
Chapter 7 leaves you at the mercy of your mortgage lender if you’re behind on the mortgage.
Bankruptcy Helps You Afford Your Mortgage
Bankruptcy frees up cash flow for your mortgage payments. Chapter 7 does so by writing off other debts. Chapter 13 does so more creatively.
Both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Improve Your Cash Flow
A Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” case would very likely quickly write off (“discharge”) many of your debts. For many people it discharges most of their debts, maybe even all of them except their home mortgage. That frees up cash flow so that you can better afford to pay your mortgage.
A Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” case is different but has a similar result. It would very likely reduce payments on most or all of your non-mortgage debts. The amount you pay monthly on your debts is often radically reduced. Plus Chapter 13 deals much better with a variety of dangerous debts. The end result is also to free up cash flow so that you can better afford to pay your mortgage.
Protecting Excess Home Equity through Chapter 13
Chapter 13 can be a highly advantageous way to protect your home equity if that equity is larger than your homestead exemption amount.
The Problem of Too Much Home Equity
Our last two blog posts were about protecting the equity in your home through the homestead exemption. Two weeks ago was about protecting the current equity; last week about protecting future equity. The blog post about protecting current equity assumed that the amount of equity in your home is no more than the amount of your applicable homestead exemption. For example, if your home is worth $300,000, your mortgage is $270,000, that gives you $30,000 of equity. If your homestead exemption is $30,000 or more that equity would be protected in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.
But what if you have more equity in your home than the applicable homestead exemption amount? In the above example, what if you had $30,000 in equity but your homestead exemption was only $25,000? Your home could conceivably be sold by the bankruptcy trustee if you filed a Chapter 7 case. Your creditors would receive the proceeds of the sale beyond the homestead exemption amount. Presumably you need relief from your creditors. But clearly don’t want to give up your home and its equity in return for being free of your debts.
Filing for Bankruptcy Due to Medical Debt
Most of the time, a person files for bankruptcy because it is the last option for bills that cannot be paid. After all, a bankruptcy on your record can diminish your credit score and make it difficult to borrow money for items like a house or a car for years. When a person files for bankruptcy, it is because they have exhausted all other options. Unfortunately for many Americans, the thing driving them to file for bankruptcy is medical debt. According to CNBC, 66.5 of all bankruptcies filed in the United States between 2013 and 2016 were tied to medical issues such as high costs for medical care or taking time off of work for medical reasons. If you have found yourself in the precarious situation of too much medical debt, here are a few things you should know before you file for bankruptcy:
Your Medical Debt is Dischargeable in Bankruptcies
Here is the good news -- medical debt is dischargeable in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies. The type of bankruptcy you file for will entirely depend on your financial situation and which option would make more sense. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy would completely eliminate your medical debt, while a Chapter 13 bankruptcy would reorganize your debt into manageable payments.
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