In 2020, because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, many mortgage companies and lenders offered homeowners a forbearance on their mortgage payments. Under the terms of a forbearance agreement, a homeowner will not have to make monthly mortgage payments for a specific length of time. This period could range from three to twelve months. However, a […] The post What Happens When a Mortgage Forbearance Ends and You Can’t Pay? appeared first on .

Bankruptcy filings classified as Single Asset Real Estate (“SARE”) cases can be more challenging without pre-bankruptcy planning

Members of the military have the same rights as ordinary civilians. One of these rights is the right to file for protection under the Bankruptcy Code. Whether someone is a member of the military or a civilian, they often have misconceptions regarding the bankruptcy process. Our experienced Philadelphia bankruptcy lawyers are prepared to answer any […] The post Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Filing Attorney for Members of the Military Filings appeared first on .

BY IGOR ROITBURG, MANAGING DIRECTOR & ED BOLTZ, PARTNER, LAW OFFICES OF JOHN T. ORCUTT Click here for the article: Preparing for the Post-COVID Resurgence of Home Mortgage Modifications

Supreme Court Says Being Listed as a Terrorist is ‘No harm.’ Last Friday, in a case called TransUnion v Ramirez, the Supreme Court said the Fair Credit Reporting Act cannot give you the right to sue TransUnion for putting your name on their OFAC terrorist warning list. Led by Justice Brent Kavanaugh, a 5 to […] The post Supreme Court Says Being Listed as a Terrorist is ‘No harm.’ by Robert Weed appeared first on Northern VA Bankruptcy Lawyer Robert Weed.

How The End Of Mortgage Forbearance Will Impact Bankruptcy Filings What Happens When a Mortgage Forbearance Ends? During a mortgage forbearance, you may stop or reduce your monthly mortgage payments without action by your loan provider. For how every many months the forbearance lasts, your mortgage provider won’t initiate a foreclosure action due to missed payments. During times of financial strain, this can be a huge relief. However, the forbearance doesn’t eliminate the past-due balance. At the end of the forbearance, you will still owe any payments you didn’t make during that period, albeit without any late fees or other penalties you would typically be charged. If you’ve been taking advantage of a mortgage forbearance due to COVID-19, you may be wondering what to do once the forbearance ends. Options After Mortgage Forbearance You should start formulating a game plan for your mortgage balance about a month before the forbearance ends. If your mortgage provider doesn’t reach out to work out an arrangement then, you should contact your mortgage provider yourself. One of the factors that will determine what options are available to you is whether your mortgage is government-backed. An option that must be given to you at the end of your forbearance is to reinstate your mortgage. This means paying the full balance that you didn’t pay during the forbearance at once. Upon reinstatement, you will go back to making your usual monthly payments. This may simply not be possible for those who take advantage of a mortgage forbearance due to financial hardship. One option your mortgage provider may offer you is a repayment plan. The amount you didn’t pay during the forbearance period will be spread out over a number of months, in addition to your usual monthly mortgage payments. Usually, your mortgage provider will give you 6 to 12 months to resolve the balance. This might be a great option for you if this is the only debt you need to catch up on at the end of the forbearance period. If this type of arrangement isn’t feasible, your mortgage provider may offer for you to defer your forbearance balance. With this option, your mortgage lender may require you to pay your forbearance balance in one lump sum at the end of your mortgage term. You may also be given the option to extend your payment plan as opposed to a lump sum payment. However, this type of arrangement can cause issues if you sell the home before paying off your mortgage. A final option your mortgage provider may offer is a loan modification. This is a permanent change to the terms of your original mortgage agreement. The term of your loan may be changed, or your monthly payments or your interest rate. You will most likely be required to complete a trial period of at least a few months before your modification can be finalized. Your lender may not offer you all of these options, and the ones available might not work for you. Giving your home back to your mortgage provider isn’t your last option in these circumstances. Bankruptcy protects your assets from your creditors, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy provides a more realistic means for many to catch up on past-due mortgage payments. There will be several other advantages to filing bankruptcy if you struggle with other debts. Can Bankruptcy Stop a Foreclosure in Arizona? The moment a bankruptcy petition is filed, the debtor is protected by the “automatic stay.” The automatic stay freezes the assets of someone in an active bankruptcy so that they are safe from creditors. Creditors may not proceed with utility shutoffs, repossessions, wage garnishments, bank levies, and most importantly here, home foreclosures, while the automatic stay is in place. The automatic stay will generally be active until the case is discharged or dismissed. However, creditors may request an exemption from the stay through a Motion for Relief from the Automatic Stay. If granted, the creditor may proceed with their chosen collection method, but other creditors are still precluded from pursuing payment from the debtor. Multiple filings could subject the debtor to an exploding stay, which expires after 30 days. Forbearance & Bankruptcy The two most common forms of consumer bankruptcy are Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13. Both chapters trigger the automatic stay upon filing. However, Chapter 7 may not be as effective as Chapter 13 in stopping a foreclosure after a forbearance. You must remain current on payments for all financed assets that you want to keep in Chapter 7. You will only have 4-6 months, or how long a Chapter 7 bankruptcy typically lasts, to resolve the forbearance balance. If you are unsuccessful, you may end up with a home foreclosure, possibly a deficiency balance, and you will be disqualified from filing bankruptcy again for a certain number of years. Forbearance & Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Chapter 13 bankruptcy will give you much more time to address your forbearance balance than Chapter 7. Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganizes your debts into a payment plan that lasts 3 years if you make less than your state’s median income, and 5 years if you make more. While most secured debts (e.g., your car loan) will need to be paid in full in your plan, your mortgage is excluded from this requirement. Your typical monthly mortgage payment will be rolled into your plan, as well as the remaining balance from your forbearance. When spread out over 3-5 years, it can be much more realistic to catch up on your past-due balance while remaining current on monthly payments. Chapter 13 provides several other benefits besides giving you time to catch up on past-due mortgage payments. Depending on how much of your debt can be paid with your disposable monthly income, your unsecured debts (including some taxes) may be discharged with minimal repayment. Just like Chapter 13 can help you avoid a foreclosure, it can help you avoid a repossession of any item used as collateral for a loan, such as your car. You may also qualify to discharge junior mortgages on your home. Learn About Your Options, Besides What Your Mortgage Company Tells You If you’re one of the millions of people who have struggled due to loss of income during the pandemic, you may have been relying on a mortgage forbearance for several months. Your lender may be willing to work with you, or you may be left with limited options. Especially if you struggle with other debts, bankruptcy could be a fruitful course of action after a mortgage forbearance. Contact Arizona’s Leading Bankruptcy Law Firm To learn more about the benefits of bankruptcy, and receive a quote for Chapter 13 plan payments and legal representation, schedule your free consultation with our firm today. Our experienced Arizona bankruptcy attorneys have a thorough understanding of bankruptcy, and will represent you with the care and dedication to discharge your debts as efficiently as possible. Call or use our online form to schedule your free consultation today.   Arizona Offices: Mesa Location: 1731 West Baseline Rd., Suite #100 Mesa, AZ 85202 Office: (480) 448-9800 Email: [email protected] Website: https://myazlawyers.com/ Phoenix Location: 343 West Roosevelt, Suite #100 Phoenix, AZ 85003 Office: (602) 609-7000 Glendale Location: 20325 N 51st Avenue Suite #134, Building 5 Glendale, AZ 85308 Office: (602) 509-0955 Tucson Location: 2 East Congress St., Suite #900-6A Tucson, AZ 85701 Office: (520) 441-1450 Avondale Location: 12725 W. Indian School Rd., Ste E, #101 Avondale, AZ 85392 Office: (623) 469-6603 The post How The End Of Mortgage Forbearance Will Impact Bankruptcy Filings appeared first on My AZ Lawyers.

Are There Furniture Exemptions When You File For Bankruptcy? Does Filing For Bankruptcy Means I Can Lose All My Belongings? When you file for bankruptcy, the court will take a close look at your finances to determine if you qualify for bankruptcy and whether you are able to pay anything to your creditors. The court will look at your income, as well as your routine expenses and what you owe your creditors. If you are determined to have enough disposable income to pay your creditors, the court will likely disqualify you from filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and put you on a repayment plan under a Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing. Under the law, creditors also have the right to take legal action to recover what you owe them, including seizing your personal property or goods. When the bankruptcy court assesses your ability to pay your creditors, it will also look at what assets you might have to liquidate to pay even part of what you owe. That has some people worried that they could lose important belongings, such as their home, their vehicle, or even their furniture. State Exemptions For Furniture & Other Goods You don’t have to worry: You likely won’t have to tally up and sell everything you own to pay your creditors after you file for bankruptcy. In most cases, you won’t have to lose anything except the debt that has been holding you down for too long. Bankruptcy law includes many exemptions for your personal property, from the big things like your house to the smaller things like your household goods and clothing. Each state has its own exemptions. In Arizona, you can exempt up to $6,000 worth of household furnishings and goods. If you are a married couple filing bankruptcy jointly, you can exempt up to $12,000. Unless you have high-end furniture, original artwork, or a lot of electronics, you likely will not exceed these exemption limits. Federal Exemptions For Furniture & Other Goods Federal law provides some additional bankruptcy exemptions that may be useful for protecting your personal goods. Federal law does not provide a specific exemption for furniture or other goods, but it does provide a wildcard exemption that you can apply to any personal items. If you don’t need to use the wildcard exemption for your home or other items that you deem more important, you can apply it to your furniture and personal belongings. The federal wildcard exemption is currently $1,325. You can apply all or part of that to your furniture. For example, if you have antique furniture that exceeds the state’s exemption for furniture and personal goods by $1,000, you can use $1,000 of the federal wildcard exemption to cover it and still have $325 to apply to something else. Typically, states also have their own wildcard exemption that you could apply in this way. However, Arizona does not provide for a wildcard exemption. You will have to work with your bankruptcy attorney to find the best application of the federal wildcard exemption to protect all the things that you want to keep in your bankruptcy filing. You do not have to lose anything in your bankruptcy filing. Most people are able to exempt their personal property from their bankruptcy discharge, including their homes, their cars, and their personal items. If you own luxury goods, you’ll need to talk with a Mesa bankruptcy attorney about how these will be treated in the bankruptcy and whether they can be protected. If you find out that certain items are not protected, be careful in weighing their value against what you would gain from the bankruptcy. If you are able to get your debt discharged, you will free up the finances to purchase anything you may have lost later. Hire An Experienced Bankruptcy Lawyer In Phoenix If you are struggling with debt, call My AZ Lawyers to talk with one of our experienced bankruptcy lawyers about how bankruptcy may provide the debt relief you need. We represent clients in both Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We’ll talk with you about your goals and then thoroughly review your finances to determine what bankruptcy strategy would give you the most benefits. We serve clients throughout the Phoenix area. Contact us today to schedule your free consultation with a bankruptcy attorney and learn more.   Arizona Offices: Mesa Location: 1731 West Baseline Rd., Suite #100 Mesa, AZ 85202 Office: (480) 448-9800 Email: [email protected] Website: https://myazlawyers.com/ Phoenix Location: 343 West Roosevelt, Suite #100 Phoenix, AZ 85003 Office: (602) 609-7000 Glendale Location: 20325 N 51st Avenue Suite #134, Building 5 Glendale, AZ 85308 Office: (602) 509-0955 Tucson Location: 2 East Congress St., Suite #900-6A Tucson, AZ 85701 Office: (520) 441-1450 Avondale Location: 12725 W. Indian School Rd., Ste E, #101 Avondale, AZ 85392 Office: (623) 469-6603 The post Are There Furniture Exemptions When You File For Bankruptcy? appeared first on My AZ Lawyers.

Do you remember where you were when you learned that Covid was going to change your life? I was sitting in my office. A week or so before, the Mayor cancelled the South by Southwest Festival and everyone thought he had lost his mind. Then out of the blue came the news that we would have to close the office starting the following Monday. That was in mid-March 2020. I had just been in New York a few weeks earlier and was completely oblivious to the fact that a highly contagious virus was already causing people to fall ill and would ultimately kill over 600,000 people in this country. Now, in June 2021, the threat of Covid is receding but our lives have been changed. I would like to share a few of my experiences. If you would like to share your own, email them to [email protected] I will add them to the end of this post. People’s Lockdown Experiences Have Been Different My office was only closed for about six weeks. During that time, I would make the six-foot walk from my bed to the computer in my bedroom to start my workday. I remember discussing trial strategy with a client while walking the dog simply because I was home and had that freedom. I would still go into the office at least once a week to sign checks, but we had a rule that no more than three people could be present at one time. In May 2020, the County Judge lifted the ban on offices being open and we returned to work. For the first few weeks, we provided lunch to the staff so they wouldn’t have to go out. When we returned, we put up barriers in the office, wiped down surfaces, took our own temperatures and wore masks when meeting in person. Other people’s experiences have been different. When I attend Webex hearings by video, I see some attorneys still working from home. For me personally, the structure of going into the office is useful. However, I know that some (many?) people have successfully made the move to working remotely. Covid Has Changed the Way We Do Court The last time I appeared in court physically was on March 12, 2020. Beginning July 2021, the Western District of Texas is going to give judges the option of having in-person hearings. When Covid started, I had used a webcam to Skype with my parents a few times. However, my webcam tended to disappear and end up in one of my kids’ rooms. I had to quickly get used to appearing on camera. One of the phrases I have heard the most over the past year has been “your line is muted.”  The Courtroom Deputies have made it their practice to test participants’ connections before court begins and solve feedback loops when someone has their phone and computer audio on at the same time. Instead of handing an exhibit book to the courtroom deputy before the beginning of the hearing, we’ve had to learn which judges prefer paper copies and which judges are electronic only. We have had to master the intricacies of screen sharing and making sure that we are sharing the screen with only the exhibit and not our notes for the hearing. Trials are shorter now because some judges require that direct testimony be submitted by proffer. This eliminates a lot of gamesmanship in making objections to try to keep testimony out but it also results in parties being able to admit inadmissible testimony as well. With remote appearances there are new opportunities for coaching. I had one trial where two witnesses (who were married) were testifying from the same webcam. The judge had to caution them to stop talking to each other while one was testifying. We have had to deal with technical issues. During one trial, the internet in my building went out just as I was about to cross examine a witness. We had to take a break while I struggled to set up a hot spot on my phone. Fortunately, the internet came back before too long. In another case, the court had to recess testimony for the day and order a witness to find out why her internet signal was not consistent. This is a reminder that we are dealing not just with our own technology, but that of witnesses and clients as well. We have also learned that being on time means logging in fifteen minutes before a hearing begins. It really annoys the court when a party joins a hearing after it has started. I have seen a judge disconnect someone who logged in late. Online hearings also allow for third parties to anonymously monitor hearings. In one case, a malevolent actor took a screen shot of a witness who was testifying and posted it on the internet. Covid Has Changed the Way We Dress for Work Prior to Covid, if I knew that I had a court hearing, I would put on a suit before I left home. Even if I didn’t have court, I would wear khakis and a dress shirt in case I was unexpectedly called to court. Now, I keep a court shirt and tie at the office.  I put my court clothes on five minutes before I log in and then change again once court is over. I did make an exception for two trials of adversary proceedings I did remotely. In both cases, I put on my good suit and wore it all day. I wanted to feel like I was in the lawyer zone and it felt right to me even if no one else could see below my shoulders. On the other side of the spectrum, I had an expedited hearing set while I was on vacation. I put on a polo shirt and tried my best to aim the camera from the chin up. The other day one of my associates wore a dress to work. She mentioned that after wearing jeans so long, she just wanted to feel “professional.” Covid has Changed the Way We Mourn Prior to Covid, funerals were times for the bankruptcy community to gather at a church and offer each other support. In particular, I recall the funerals for former judges Larry Kelly and Glen Ayers.  In both cases, the church service was followed by a reception at which friends and colleagues could mingle, share stories and share condolences. I don’t know whether or not this is unique to me, but sometimes it seems like news about losses to our bankruptcy community does not flow as well as it used to. I will give three examples from this year. My friend, Jim Hoeffner, succumbed to cancer on March 6, 2021. He was only 67. His family set up a memorial for him on Zoom in May and it was beautiful. His nephew, who is a pastor, gave a beautiful sermon. Family members from all over the country gave eulogies. Finally, they opened the floor up for anyone who wanted to say a few words. I was really struck by the impact that Jim had on the lives of his children’s friends. Multiple friends spoke about how Jim had supported them and been a part of their lives.  In some respects, it reminded me of the one Jewish shiva I attended because of the communal sharing of memories. Judge Mike Lynn passed away in April. I found out about his passing from the Facebook page of another former judge. There was a celebration of his life at his home (outdoors with social distancing). Unfortunately, I did not know about his passing at the time and was not able to attend. I am passing this on for the benefit of anyone else who missed the news.  Donations can be made to savinghoperescue.org in his memory. I also found a link to this obituary: https://bondsellis.com/attorney/d-michael-lynn/ Finally, Austin bankruptcy attorney Thomas Alvis passed away on June 1, 2021. I learned about his passing from cancer from reading the obituaries in my local newspaper. Tom’s passing was particularly tragic because his brother, John Alvis, who was also a longtime bankruptcy practitioner, had also succumbed to cancer some years back. While the deaths of Jim Hoeffner, Judge Lynn and Tom Alvis were not caused by Covid, they came amidst the overwhelming grief caused by Covid. I feel that the disruption to our lives caused by this pandemic has made it harder to recognize the people who have left us.    What Have Your Experiences Been Like? I would love to hear from you and will share them here.

If you owe back rent due to the COVID pandemic, you may be eligible for relief under the New York State Rental Assistance Program.