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smithfamily4 · Joined: 07 Nov 2009 Posts: 5 3.30 Dollars($)

I posted this on a different question so please forgive me but I need someone to give me a bit of insight on what to do in this matter. I am terrified that the mortgage company can just take my house and I love it too much to lose it. Here is my situation...
We filed Chapter 7 in July 2005. We carefully followed all of our attorney's instructions and signed every thing we were told to sign. We were discharged approx. 2 months later. In our bankruptcy we signed a "statement of intent to reaffirm" our mortgage. We continued making our monthly mortgage bill but did fall behind 1 month for a long period of time due to an illness. We recently brought the mortgage current and we are told that the mortgage company has no intention of taking our home as long as we continue to make our monthly mortgage. We are going to start making a small extra amount toward paying off the late fees which they tell us just get added to the end of the loan. By the way we have a 6% fixed interest rate and our house payment is well within our affordability now that the illness has been resolved.
Now we have a water damage claim and the insurance check is made payable to us and our mortgage company which is now refusing to endorse it because they say they did not get a reaffirmation agreement back in 2005. They also admitted that they failed to send the reaffirmation until 2 months after the discharge. To who they sent it I do not know because my attorney has no record of it even being sent to him or the court and I know if I had seen it I would have contacted the attorney immediately. He says the court sent out notices to all creditors in July so waiting 4 months to send it was failure on the part of the mortgage company to act in a timely manner which is required and a reaffirmation is not required as long as I am voluntarily continuing to pay the debt. He doubts if a judge would even reopen it to add the reaffirmation and if so it is going to cost us another $750 (don't have it right now). We would have had the 750 except we put out cash from our pocket to purchase materials toward the damage repairs. We intend on staying in our house for the life of the mortgage so what do we do now? The mortgage company is sending us a reaffirmation in the mail now and I have spoken with one account manager who said to just sign the reaffirmation and return it to them and that would be enough. I have spoken with my attorney who says just bring it to him when we get it in the mail and he will look it over but if we need to file it with the court it is going to cost me another $750+ assuming that the court will even accept it this much later. But the customer service rep in the mortgage company's bankruptcy department says we must reopen the bankruptcy and add the reaffirmation. Do I really have to reopen the bankruptcy to get this straightened out and get my contractor paid? I have no issue with the mortgage company monitoring the repairs as we are having the repairs done through licensed & bonded contractors. If we do not sign the reaffirmation does that mean the mortgage company is going to be coming to take our home? Can the mortgage company wait until we are near the end of our payments and then just take it from us and we lose all our equity? We have been fixing this house up with the intention of living in it for life.

jheard · Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:09 am Post subject:

If you have an attorney advising you, you should follow that attorney's advice.

adonis · Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:50 pm Post subject:

Hi smithfamily,

As far as I know, you should reaffirm your mortgage before your bankruptcy is discharged. In your case, as you haven't reaffirmed the mortgage, you will have to reopen the bankruptcy and add the reaffirmation agreement to it. The mortgage lender cannot take away your property if you are paying the mortgage dues to him. If you stop the payments, he would foreclose the property. As your attorney has suggested to contact him with the debt reaffirmation agreement, I think you should contact him and take his suggestions. He would be the right person to help you.

smithfamily4 · Joined: 07 Nov 2009 Posts: 5 3.30 Dollars($)

Hi Adonis (great name by the way),

It makes us a little leary of going back to the same attorney seeing as we were never informed of this "reaffirmation" not being complete. We paid him to be the expert and he failed to advise us that there was more paperwork still outstanding. We could have delayed the bankruptcy then if we still needed something from the mortgage company. Now we have a real lack of confidence in him given the present situation.
We would never stop making our payment as we actually have grown to love this house and our children and their friends all call this home but now we have to wonder if the mortgage company can just come put us out because the value of the house now is worth much more than when we purchased it.
We purchased this house when our son was in junior high and our daughter was in elementary. We had landscaping done, a pool installed along with a pool house, decks built and wood floors installed as well. The only reason we had to file the bankruptcy was because of a civil lawsuit that could only be discharged through the bankruptcy. Now our son is a college sophmore at the University of Texas and our daughter is getting ready to start her first year at a culinary arts school. We are going to be here for the rest of our lives God willing.
Do you know if we can have another attorney reopen the bankruptcy or do we have to go with the same one? As I said we have a lack of confidence in this one. My husband says that we really should go back to the original one as it is his mess up and he should correct it for just the filing fees but I really don't know if I trust that attorney anymore.

adonis · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:17 am Post subject:

Hi smithfamily,

Thanks for the compliment. Smile

I don't think it's mandatory for you to contact the same attorney. You can always contact another attorney and take his opinion in this regard. He/she may help you in submitting the reaffirmation agreement and thus, you would be able to save the property.

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Please somebody give me some insight!