Mortgage

The Fifth Circuit undertook a legal analysis of a complex loan agreement to decide there was no ‘fair ground of doubt’ under Taggart that the lender was violating the discharge injunction.

Because a right of redemption does not give rise to a claim, Section 1322(b) doesn’t enable a debtor to redeem foreclosed property when the right of redemption has expired.

A deficiency judgment resulting from mortgage foreclosure is not ‘a judgment arising out of a mortgage foreclosure’ and can be avoided as a judgment lien.

‘Obtained by’ legal proceedings, a consent judgment is still a judgment lien that can be avoided if it impairs an exemption.

Giving Debtors Their Fair Shake: What Happens to Nonexempt Equity Increases in Debtors’ Homes in Converted Chapter 7 Cases By Andrew Bates 1 Following decisions from the Eighth and Ninth Circuits, chapter 13 filers could find themselves in a difficult predicament

Bankruptcy Judge Michelle Harner decided that a mortgage servicer must allow a chapter 13 debtor’s continued use of an online payment platform.

Virginia’s Judge Keith Phillips sides with courts that bar lenders from cutting deals with trustees to eliminate debtors’ homestead exemptions.

In In re Smith, [1] the Third Circuit reminded consumer bankruptcy practitioners of the wrath of res judicata. The debtor owned an encumbered rental property with an assignment of rents to her mortgage lender. The debtor’s proposed chapter 13 plan included a cramdown of the mortgage lender’s claim that reduced the secured portion of the claim from $150,000 to $95,000 — the value of the collateral. The plan further provided that the payment of rents would pay down the secured portion of the lender’s claim.

The lender objected to the $95,000 cramdown value, the application of rents to the secured portion of its claim, and feasibility. After the bankruptcy court sided with the debtor and held that the rents could pay down the secured portion of the lender’s claim, the lender agreed to the $95,000 cramdown value and abandoned its feasibility objections. The bankruptcy court confirmed the plan.