The reason I wrote the book on bankruptcy is to serve as a guide so people can stay on top of the process. I have in there a chapter about saving your home. That is one of the first questions people ask is, “I’m not going to lose my home, am I?” The answer to that is most people don’t lose anything. What we look at is the fair market value of the house versus the mortgage or maybe real estate taxes or any debts that are owed on the house, and we take the difference and that’s the asset. Then we exempt that asset, and the bankruptcy code provides an exemption for that purpose. They are pretty generous up to a certain dollar value.You cover up your assets so the creditor can’t come in and take things away from you. So assuming you are able to exempt it, you are not going to lose it. If you are current on your mortgage and you want to exempt it, then you want to file Chapter 7. If you are behind on your mortgage, even though you are able to exempt it, you will want to file Chapter 13. So that’s one chapter in the book.
Then avoiding liens is something a lot of attorneys who don’t practice bankruptcy law regularly overlook. For instance if a creditor gets a judgment against you, that becomes a lien on your property and you can remain liable for that debt. What you have to do is take the extra step to avoid that action. Then that debt is wiped out, or otherwise you will continue to remain liable for that debt.
Then there is a chapter in there about income taxes. Very seldom can you discharge income taxes, but there are limited exceptions where you can get rid of income taxes. Probably more so than income taxes, the hardest thing to get rid of are student loans (although there are a few exceptions there, which some people fall in line). I have discharged a handful of those over the years. There are not a lot of situations in which people qualify to have that done, but it is possible.
There are a variety of things you can do to turn your life around. Like I say in my ad, I will help you put your life back together. Give me a call.