Hi, I’m Mike Greiner, I’m an attorney with the Financial Law Group located here in Warren and I’m here today to talk to you about chapter 13 bankruptcy and how we’ve been able to take the second mortgage lean on people’s homes through chapter13 bankruptcy. You can contact us by the way at 586-693-2000 and our website is financiallawgroup.com. Now coming back to chapter 13 bankruptcy, something a lot of people have thought coming into my office is that they can get rid of a second mortgage through chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Mortgages actually include two elements. There is the note which is the personal liability that, that you have for the mortgage and there is the mortgage which is actually the lien that the mortgage company has on your home. The lien is the right, the property rights that the mortgage company has so that they can take back your home if you do not make your mortgage payments. The the note is just the personal liability you have. Just like a credit card. You have a note with a credit card and it’s that personal liability you have to pay that debt. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy does actually wipe out the personal liability.
So the mortgage company, although it used to not happen very often. It happened more and more frequently recently could sue you under the note, just like a credit card can to collect on that debt. They also, as a result of the mortgage, have foreclosure rights against your property. By filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy you get rid of the rights that the mortgage company has to sue you personally. They still have the rights to foreclose though. Those rights, in this day and age with the property values have declined, might be worthless because the fact that your home might be worth less than what you owe on the first mortgage, or what you owe on property taxes. If that’s the case, then once the foreclosure happens the second mortgage would get nothing. So there’s no reason for the second mortgage to foreclose. So I’ve had a lot of clients who’ve come in they’ve just filed chapter 7 bankruptcy. They’ve gotten rid of their personal liability for the second mortgage. They might not be planning on staying in the house for very long or at some point moving out, or might not know. But the bottom line is that they’re in a situation they just want to get rid of the personal liability and they don’t really care if there’s that lien sitting out there that could potentially foreclose on their house someday if the value of the first mortgage goes down base on the payments that you make. And the value of the property goes up, based upon the property value starting to bounce back. So if you’re in situation chapter 7 bankruptcy can certainly be helpful to you.
If not however then the other option is we can actually file a chapter 13 case. Now chapter 13 scares a lot of people because that’s the chapter where you pay certain payments that could go toward your creditors. A lot of my clients though actually pay nothing or very little toward their unsecured creditors, unsecured creditors would include things like credit cards and medical bills. The secured creditors would include things like your mortgages and car loans, those debts have to be paid unless you want to surrender the property.
So if you have a car loan that you want to that, that, that where you wanna keep the vehicle. You need to keep making those payments. That payment could potentially be included in chapter 13 bankruptcy. And there are certain circumstances where it can actually reduce the amount you owe on the car based upon chapter 13 bankruptcy. Although those opportunities have really been narrowed when law was changed a few years ago. Your first mortgage, either you’ll have to stay current on, or if you’re behind on it, we can get you caught up on that mortgage through chapter 13 bankruptcy. We can’t actually change the payment, on the first mortgage, but we can get you caught up on it, with no interest, over a period of time. Which often times is a better deal than you can get anywhere else. But the second mortgage, that’s the key if the property values of your home have declined, to the point where you owe more on the first mortgage then your home is worth, then there is no equity there.
In the house for a second mortgage, if that’s the case then through chapter 13 if you make all your payments on chapter 13 case, even if you pay nothing toward the second mortgage, then that second mortgage can be wiped off your home and you will never owe that second mortgage again. A lot of our clients have found that to be very helpful, and especially with the way that the mortgage companies really don’t work with people to do mortgage modifications. A lot of people have found that this is really the most effective mortgage modification out there. We have a unique opportunity now where so many people have second mortgages because of the way the mortgage industry was a few years before the crash.
Property values have declined so much because of the economic crisis we’re in. Although it’s a crisis it’s difficult for a lot of people. It’s also an opportunity. And the opportunity is that you can get rid of a second mortgage which you might not have been able to pay off for many years or ever. But you can get rid of it often with a very low payment through chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you want to find out if this will work for you give my office a call. I have free consultations. Number’s 586-693-2000 and our website is financiallawgroup.com. I’d be happy to discuss your options on this.
Hi, my name is Mike Greiner and I’m a bankruptcy attorney with the Financial Law Group located here in Warren, Michigan. Our phone number is 586-693-2000 and our website is financiallawgroup.com and I’m here to today to make a warning to you if you are struggling with debt, and you are thinking about borrowing money from a family member, and you want to pay back that family member. My warning to you is, do not do it. What I’ve seen, and this is the law, is that people prefer to pay back their family members, than to pay back certain credit cards that they may owe. And that is called a preference, for obvious reasons. If you pay back a relative, rather than paying back your other creditors, and then file bankruptcy, then the creditors- as you go through your bankruptcy, will be able to sue you, or sue your relative, to get back the money that you paid to them within the year before you file bankruptcy. So my advice to people is, if you are thinking about borrowing money from a relative to help yourself out of some financial trouble, do not do it. If you’re thinking about paying back a relative to where you owe money to them before you file bankruptcy do not do it. That’s the worst thing you can do.
There are things that we can do to protect assets that you may have as your going through bankruptcy, but if you have already paid back on these, there’s nothing we can do to help you at that point. Your relative might be subject of a lawsuit by the creditors as your, as your going through this process. If you want to discus your options and your dealing with financial problems um, we do have free consultations at my office my phone number if 586-693-2000, and our website is financiallawgroup.com.
Hi, my name is Mike Greiner and I’m a bankruptcy attorney with the Financial Law Group located in Warren, Michigan. Our phone number is 586-693-2000, and our website is financiallawgroup.com. I’m here to talk to you today about deficiencies with both mortgages and with car loans. What a lot of people, what a lot of people don’t realize is say you decide you don’t want to keep your home anymore. You cannot sell it. You owe more on the house than the house is worth. People think well I’ll just walk away from the house and not be liable for that house anymore and unfortunately that’s not the way it works. You still get held liable for what’s called the deficiency. The deficiency is the difference between what you owe on that debt and what they sell the house for- and that could be very substantial. I just had a client come into my office last night who is being pursued for more than $100,000 deficiency on a mortgage that was foreclosed on and he thought he gave back the house. He didn’t owe this money anymore. But that is not the way the law works. You actually still do owe the money on the mortgage.
It’s the same thing on a car loan if the car gets repossessed. Oftentimes, say you owe $10,000 on the vehicle. They sell it at auction for $3,000. You still owe $7,000 on that loan, and they will pursue you for that amount. People frequently think that I’m exaggerating when I say that the banks do come after people for this. But I can point you out to this gentleman who was here just night being pursued for more than $100,000 deficiency on a mortgage loan. I’ve met a number of other people who are facing lawsuits and garnishments because of the fact that these mortgage companies or car loan companies are coming after them for deficiencies where the home had been foreclosed or the vehicle had been repossessed.
The good news about all this is that these debts are dischargeable in bankruptcy. And so if you’re being pursued by one of these creditors I would definitely suggest you come into my office and meet with me to discuss your options. We offer free consultations here. My website is financiallawgroup.com. My phone number is 586-693-2000. We can talk to you about ways that we can get rid of any further liability that you have for property that has been either repossessed or foreclosed.
Hi, my name is Mike Greiner and I’m a bankruptcy attorney with the financial law group located here in Warren, Michigan. Our phone number is (586)693-2000 and our website is financiallawgroup.com. And I’m here to talk to you today about a concern that a lot of my clients have which is whether they’re going to lose assets as they go through a bankruptcy. And the truth of the matter is, is that for most of my clients they do not lose any assets as they go through a chapter 7 bankruptcy or a chapter 13 bankruptcy. We’re able to protect them with something called exemptions. What exemptions are is there’s something into the law to allow you to protect assets. The theory behind chapter 7 bankruptcy is that you get rid of all your debts and all your assets, and that’s the way it works with a business when a business files chapter 7 bankruptcy.
But with individuals, Congress understood you can’t do that, that you still need a home, you still need transportation, you still clothing, you still need household goods and furnishings. You still the kinds of things that you would normally need to live a normal life. And so those things are protected up to a certain value as your going through a bankruptcy case. For most of my clients where you have a home with a mortgage on it, you might have a vehicle or two, you might have a car loan, all those things can typically be can be protected. It’s very rare when someone has enough assets their, that they loose something through a bankruptcy case.
What I’m able to do as we prepare the documents. I’m able to do an analysis and determine if there is any concern that any of these assets will be lost. Again, it’s very rare that anybody actually loses any assets their going through a bankruptcy case. One thing that a lot of people also are concerned about is say you’ve got a mortgage on your home or a car loan on a vehicle, will that mean that that, that that would be a loss you go through in a bankruptcy case? And the truth is if you want to keep that and you can stay current on your payments, most cases you are able to keep those assets as you go through the bankruptcy case. With vehicles for example we do something called a reaffirmation agreement. And what that allows you to do is just keep making the payments on the vehicle and as long as you stay current on your payments you’ll get to keep the car. We do a similar thing with the mortgage, where again just continue making your mortgage payments.
As long as you stay current on your mortgage payments you’ll be able to keep your home. If you are thinking about bankruptcy and are concerned if you might lose some assets again, I urge you to talk to me because in most cases we’re able to protect them. I do offer free consultations. We’d be happy to discuss your options with you. Again, my name is Michael Greiner with the Financial Law Group. Our phone number is 586-693-2000 and our website is FinancialLawGroup.com.
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