Home Foreclosure Lawyer | Mount Vernon Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Attorney | Stop Your Mount Vernon House Foreclosure Auction and Sale

Behind on your mortgage payments?  Facing a Mount Vernon, WA home foreclosure sale or auction?  Talk to a Mount Vernon Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney.

Bankruptcy can stop a foreclosure immediately.  You have until the day your house is sold at auction to stop the process, at least temporarily.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will stop the foreclosure but the mortgage company can get permission from a bankruptcy judge to start it back up again in as little as a month.  It may take longer for the mortgage company to start the foreclosure up again and eliminating debt in a Chapter 7 may improve your cash flow to the point where you can get caught up on mortgage, especially if it is early in the foreclosure process.

However, a Chapter 7 does not offer you long-term protection to allow you to get caught up on a mortgage. Some fortunate homeowners qualify for a mortgage modification after eliminating debt in a Chapter 7.  In a Chapter 13 repayment plan, you can save your home from foreclosure for good while you make up missed payments over a period of up to five years.  During this time, you have to make your current mortgage payments as well.

It is possible to remove a second mortgage from a home in a Chapter 13.  To strip the second mortgage from your home’s title, the value of the home has to be less than the balance on the first mortgage.  This requires filing a lawsuit along with your Chapter 13 plan to prove that there is no equity that the second mortgage can attach to.

If this lawsuit is successful, then the second mortgage is paid as a general unsecured debt in the Chapter 13, meaning you will probably pay pennies on the dollar over five years – perhaps you will pay nothing at all.  Most are won by default when the mortgage company does not respond or are settled with the mortgage company before trial.

If a creditor sues you for a debt in Washington, they automatically receive a judgment lien on your property.  They can’t foreclosure with this lien, but it could prevent the sale of your property.  If you don’t make payments on the debt, it collects interest until the property is sold or refinanced.

A bankruptcy can allow you to strip the judgment lien from your property, which can make the sale or refinancing of the property a lot easier.  Bankruptcy can stop a foreclosure immediately.  You have until the day your house is sold at auction to stop the process, at least temporarily.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will stop the foreclosure but the mortgage company can get permission from a bankruptcy judge to start it back up again in as little as a month.  It may take longer for the mortgage company to start the foreclosure up again and eliminating debt in a Chapter 7 may improve your cash flow to the point where you can get caught up on mortgage, especially if it is early in the foreclosure process.

However, a Chapter 7 does not offer you long term protection to allow you to get caught up on a mortgage.  Some fortunately homeowners qualify for a mortgage modification after eliminating debt in a Chapter 7.

In a Chapter 13 repayment plan, you can save your home from foreclosure for good while you make up missed payments over a period of up to five years.  During this time, you have to make your current mortgage payments as well. 

It is possible to remove a second mortgage from a home in a Chapter 13.   To strip the second mortgage from your home’s title, the value of the home has to be less than the balance on the first mortgage. This requires filing a lawsuit along with your Chapter 13 plan to prove that there is no equity that the second mortgage can attach to.

If this lawsuit is successful, then the second mortgage is paid as a general unsecured debt in the Chapter 13, meaning you will probably pay pennies on the dollar over five years – perhaps you will pay nothing at all.   Most are won by default when the mortgage company does not respond or are settled with the mortgage company before trial.

If a creditor sues you for a debt in Washington, they automatically receive a judgment lien on your property.  They can’t foreclosure with this lien, but it could prevent the sale of your property.   If you don’t make payments on the debt, it collects interest until the property is sold or refinanced.   A bankruptcy can allow you to strip the judgment lien from your property, which can make the sale or refinancing of the property a lot easier.