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Can an Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy stop my WA home foreclosure?
If you qualify, yes it can!
If you are hoping to prevent or stop an Olympia, WA home foreclosure, we can help. Time, however, is of the essence. If your Thurston County or Olympia house is facing a potential foreclosure action, we encourage you to call our offices immediately for an initial consultation. You can speak with one of Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorneys, who can explain how we can initiate an emergency filing to prevent your home's foreclosure sale.
Over the years, our WA State bankruptcy lawyers have prevented or stopped hundreds of Washington State and Olympia home foreclosure actions. In many cases, our clients are able to keep their homes by catching up on their arrears through an Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a type of debt consolidation plan that allows you to make monthly payments you can afford for three to five years. At the end your plan, your qualifying debts are completely discharged. In the meantime, you can continue to live in your Thurston County home while you catch up on your mortgage through your Chapter 13 plan payments.
Few things are as scary and disconcerting as losing your home. The Federal and WA State bankruptcy laws are here to protect homeowners who have fallen on difficult financial times. If you can qualify, you owe it to yourself and your family to learn more about this powerful home foreclosure prevention tool. No one buys a house with the thought of one day having to save it from foreclosure. With today's crazy economy and housing market, however, more and more of our Olympia neighbors are being threatened with having their home repossessed. We can help.
How can an Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy save my house?
If you Olympia home is in foreclosure or facing threatened repossession, an Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment plan can restructure your loans and stop the foreclosure dead in its tracks. An Olympia Chapter 13 plan is a formula for paying creditors, including mortgage companies, over a period of three to five years. You can spread out payments on the amount you are behind on a mortgage, but you have to also stay current on mortgage payments going forward.
in your Olympia Chapter 13 plan, you can pay as little as 0% on many unsecured debts, and pay less than the full amount on several other kinds of debts, such as car loans. You can also pay off taxes and back child support in a Chapter 13 plan. A Chapter 13 trustee administers your case, making recommendations to the court, taking your monthly payments, and paying your creditors according to your plan. A successful plan takes a lot of planning. If possible, you should talk to an experienced Olympia bankruptcy attorney as early in the foreclosure process as possible.
Another way a Chapter 13 can save a house is when there is equity in the property that could be taken in a Chapter 7. In Washington, the homestead exemption is $125,000, which means any equity in the house you are living in up to $125,000 is protected from your creditors. If you have more equity than this in your home, you can restructure your debts in a Chapter 13 plan – you just have to pay back the amount your creditors would have received in a Chapter 7 if your house had been sold (figuring in a 10% cost of administration of sale).
Can an Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy get rid of second mortgage on my Olympia home if there is no longer any equity behind it?
Yes. This process is call lien stripping. If your Olympia home qualifies for this kind of relief, we can literally wipe out a second, third, or succeeding mortgage or lien.
You can strip off a second, third or succeeding mortgage in an Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy if your house is worth less than the first mortgage. After successfully stripping the second mortgage from your home, the loan is treated as an “unsecured” debt – or a debt that is not backed up by collateral, such as a credit card debt.
Your Olympia Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan will put a cap on the most that you have pay to the unsecured creditors by setting a percentage of how much you can pay to them – anything from 0% to 100%, depending on your assets and income. Properly filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a complicated process. Our Olympia bankruptcy attorneys are very skilled at putting together Chapter 13 bankruptcy plans that maximize the legal benefits available to our clients.
What about a Chapter 7 bankruptcy? Can it help save my house too?
Yes. In certain situations, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy can help save your home too.
A Chapter 7 can also “save” a house. This is most commonly accomplished by freeing up disposable income so that you can stay current on your mortgage. You can also strip judgment liens from your home, as long as there is no unexempt equity to secure them. Unexempt equity is equity that cannot be protected under Washington's current Homestead Exemption, which is $125,000.
A Chapter 7 can also stop or prevent a foreclosure from moving forward. But a creditor can start it up again with permission from the bankruptcy court if you are not current with your mortgage payments. This can, however, buy you some additional time to stay in your home while you attempt to pursue other options.
If you are worried about the loss of your home, there are many ways that an Olympia Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy can help. If you have questions preventing or stopping your Thurston County home's foreclosure, our Olympia bankruptcy attorneys are ready to help you explore all available options.