Mortgage foreclosure defense is a many-faceted approach to saving your house from foreclosure. Foreclosure most often is instituted when a lender, typically a bank or other financial institution or a mortgage servicer starts legal proceedings to take away the ownership of your home. Foreclosure can also be tax lien foreclosure. A tax lien foreclosure is instituted when your property municipality or other municipality imposes taxes that are not paid. The Township will sell a certificate for taxes that are unpaid with an interest rate of up to 18% to whoever is willing to purchase it. The other types of Foreclosure are instituted by either homeowner’s associations (HOAs for short) condominium Board’s or cooperative boards.
In the State of New Jersey, approximately 10% of all homes are in foreclosure. That number may rise dramatically, however, our firm can help to prevent you from becoming part of that statistic.
Today one of the leading causes of bankruptcy is people who have medical insurance that does not cover all their medical expenses. Nothing else is a cause for bankruptcies over the last few years as unpaid medical expenses.
The other leading cause of bankruptcy is when people who were victims of the economy lose their high-paying jobs or other types of employment and can no longer pay their bills leading to a downward spiral.
Another problem faced by many people is overwhelming student loan debt. Many people who have six-figure incomes often have done so through obtaining advanced degrees, which resulted in student loan debt that can be as much as 2 or 3 times their annual income.
Credit card debt also continues to be a major problem in that it forces people into dire financial straits.
In New Jersey, our firm utilizes the services of the bankruptcy court’s mortgage modification program, which if you qualify can provide significant help and prevent you from losing your home to foreclosure.
When our firm filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy on your behalf, we also make a motion to have you get admitted to the bankruptcy court’s mortgage modification program. Through this program, lenders are prevented from playing the games that are all too common in state court programs and when you directly attempt to obtain a modification from your lender.
The bankruptcy court’s mortgage modification program has real teeth behind it to protect the homeowner. All documents for a mortgage loan modification are submitted to a lender through an electronic portal and are time stamped. Thus, a lender cannot conveniently lose your paperwork.
In addition, when you filed for bankruptcy, Section 362 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code puts into effect an automatic stay, which effectively precludes any civil litigation from continuing against you or from being filed against you. The court will not tolerate violations of the automatic stay.
To continue a legal action against you, a creditor must file a motion to vacate the stay or they will be in violation of the stay if they continue a legal proceeding against you. (There are however exceptions to every rule, and matrimonial and other family-related matters are one of those exceptions).
Under the Dodd-Frank Act and the consumer financial protection Bureau rules and regulations, even when you are in state court when a lender has a full and complete mortgage loan modification application, also known as a loss mitigation application any pending foreclosure is supposed to be put on hold for up to 60 days pending a decision on whether or not to grant you a mortgage modification.
Prior to obtaining a mortgage loan modification, a lender will give you a trial modification, which typically requires the homeowner to make timely payments for 3 to 6 months before a permanent mortgage loan modification can be granted. If you are in bankruptcy proceedings, and there are no other debts involved you will be able to emerge from bankruptcy once you get a permanent mortgage loan modification.
No one can guarantee anyone a mortgage loan modification or principal reduction. While principal reductions occasionally happen, no one can predict how much they would be for or if they will happen. If and when principal reductions do happen, they will not typically erase a significant portion of your mortgage loan principal balance.
Typically, when you obtained a permanent mortgage loan modification, you will receive a 40-year mortgage at prevailing interest rates. At COFFYLAW, LLC we tried to obtain mortgage loan modifications that do not include a balloon payment but no one can guarantee that.
Bankruptcy is your right under federal law and many of the astigmatisms that people usually associate with bankruptcy are no longer accurate. In fact, under the bankruptcy code, you cannot be discriminated against just because you filed for bankruptcy.
Mortgage foreclosure defense and bankruptcy are both very complex fields of law with very specific rules of both federal and state law. Both of these highly technical areas of law require retention of the law firm that specializes in these areas. The law firm of COFFYLAW, LLC specializes in all aspects of mortgage foreclosure and bankruptcy as well as a few other closely integrated aspects of the law.
For your free consultation, call the law firm of COFFYLAW LLC today. We will separate fact from fiction and when you retain us, you are always a person, not a file number.
