Friday, December 11, 2009

Should You File For Bankruptcy To Stop Foreclosure?

written by: Ginger Taylor

If you are facing foreclosure, your biggest concern right now is how to save your home. Nothing else really matters. You are facing an uphill battle, but it is not impossible to stop foreclosure. Filing for chapter thirteen bankruptcy is last resort way to keep from losing your home.

As soon as you file, the foreclosure must be stayed and the bank cannot pursue any further collection action until your Denver bankruptcy is dealt with. This allows you to come up with a plan to save your home by offering a modified schedule for paying your debts. The plan does not have to cover all of your unsecured debts, but it does have to get the approval of a bankruptcy judge before it can go into effect.


Before you file for bankruptcy, you will be required to attend a credit counseling session. This can help you determine whether you really need to file for bankruptcy or if your debts can be repaid in some other way. If the credit counseling agency prepares a debt repayment plan for you, it must be submitted to the court along with your bankruptcy filing. You may also want to consult a Denver bankruptcy lawyer on how to handle your bankruptcy. Filing bankruptcy can be tricky and if you file incorrectly, you will have to live with that decision the rest of your life instead of putting your bankruptcy behind you and moving on.


Within fourteen days after you file for chapter thirteen, you must file your repayment plan. This is usually done at the same time as the original filing, but it can be done later if you are not quite ready yet, as long as it is on file with the court within fourteen days.


You will be required to attend a creditor's meeting, and all of the companies and people you owe money will have a chance to ask you questions. The purpose of this meeting is to give your creditors a chance to object if they do not feel you will be paying as much as you possibly could under the proposed plan.


After the meeting has been conducted, the bankruptcy judge can take up to 45 days to approve or deny your proposal. In any case, you are required to start making the payments proposed under the plan within 30 days, so that means you may have to start paying on the plan before you know whether it will be accepted.


The downside to using bankruptcy to avoid foreclosure is that sometimes it only postpones it, and then you end up with both a foreclosure and a bankruptcy on your credit. It is often difficult to stick to the repayment plan, and if you fail, you can still lose your home. But before you file chapter thirteen bankruptcy explore all possible options, talk to an experienced Denver bankruptcy attorney first.


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