For homeowners struggling with debt, whether or not they should file for bankruptcy will depend on their goals. Do you want to keep your home, pay off some debts or simply delay foreclosure? If you plan to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can still keep your home provided you are up-to-date with your mortgage payments and you don’t have much equity.
For the latter, it’s more likely that you will lose your home when you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy if you have a lot of equity that a trustee will use to pay off your debts. No matter what your situation is, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy becomes clearer for you when you hire a bankruptcy lawyer in California.
Foreclosure or Chapter 7 bankruptcy?
When you’re thinking about filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you need to know the difference between losing your home to bankruptcy and foreclosure. These are two different processes.
If you are constantly falling behind with your mortgage payments, you will eventually end up losing your home in foreclosure even if a trustee doesn’t sell it.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy, on the other hand, provides temporary relief from foreclosure but this won’t ensure that you will keep your home as it doesn’t have the mechanism to halt the foreclosure permanently or pay off.
Hire the best bankruptcy lawyer in California
A crucial way to protect your home from bankruptcy is by exempting all of your home equity, although this is often not enough. Whether you will lose your home or keep it in this type of bankruptcy, depends on several factors.
After you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all of your properties will go to a bankruptcy estate. You will not lose everything as you are still permitted to remove belongings that are reasonably necessary for maintaining your employment and home from the estate.
The bankruptcy trustee will put your remaining assets up for sale in the process of Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the proceeds of the sales will go to your creditors. If you make mistakes in your petition, it’s unlikely that the judge in charge of your bankruptcy case will allow it to get dismissed and as such, you might lose your most valuable property.
In order to avoid this, it’s recommended to hire a bankruptcy attorney to help you get a better understanding of what might happen to your petition before filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Going through Chapter 7 bankruptcy
It is a big challenge to fully understand the intricacies involved in a bankruptcy case. To understand and follow the rules that will ensure your bankruptcy case is properly and competently handled, seek the services of an experienced bankruptcy lawyer.
Unknown to many filers, there are a lot of details in a bankruptcy routine that should be meticulously researched before the filing process. A qualified lawyer will assist you throughout this process.
Call us now to learn more
An experienced bankruptcy lawyer will know the requirements that you must complete before filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It is, therefore, essential to hire one with such expertise to help you out.
We at The Larkin Law Firm will provide you with such assistance. Call us today at (877) 256-3946 for proper guidance when filing for a Chapter 7 or any other type of bankruptcy.
