I've posted earlier about a lawsuit that's been filed against me by a local attorney representing Midland Management on behalf of the bankrupt FCNB for roughly $6k. I have not been served with the summons. I've been away for 2 years and many of you gave me tremendous help then and were responsible in large part for helping my husband and I save our home & keep our family safe. I made the mistake -- based on the premise that the CO SOL was 3 years and we were clear -- to finance a used vehicle for our 3 kids to share to get to school & work. The interest rate was 20% based on our mid 500 FICOS, but probably the worst consequence was that it raised a flag with the CAs, and as a result, my CR then listed my employer leaving me exposed. I now find out that the CO SOL was changed within the last year from 3 years to 6 now making us vulnerable to lawsuits potentially totalling nearly $90k. My husband has just been served for two CA lawsuits -- one for $7k and one for $12k. I'm now scared that we are sitting ducks for an avalanche of CA's filing suit, since they can see I have a job with wages to garnish. We're now talking about selling the house, because we cannot afford to payoff these creditors coming our way. CRAP. I'm not sure what direction to take. I could payoff Midland in full, if I have to, to avoid a judgement. But, when do I move in that direction? What steps do I need to take now? I forget a lot of what I leaned several years ago. Can someone direct me to a post or give advice on a course of action? Thanks in advance. Susanna
If you and hubby are getting served and the SOL has been changed you have 90-k worth of debt than you might want to think of going bankrupt chp-7
One thing I would not do is sell the house to pay them off under any conditions. They can put a lien on it but they can't make you sell it or take it away from you. If you sell it you will probably lose a lot more money yet. Garnishment would be better than that. There are far too many tricks you can use against them to even start listing them here, but one thing to watch out for is whether or not they have filed suit on both of you when in reality only one of you might have actually held the card and the other was not on it at all. If they do that which they sometimes do you can use that to vacate the judgment. You would not want to raise that issue prior to the hearing however because it is better used to vacate the judgment. There are literally dozens of different things the lawyers do wrong that can win your case against them but it takes experience to learn all the tricks. That's the problem and because the average person will never learn them all they end up losing such cases.
Is this revision grandfathered? If not, it does not apply to you. Have you considered changing jobs to hide for a little while longer until you can get a decent nest egg set aside before you file BK or get into a higher tax bracket to start making payment arrangements? In some states, there is a maximum percentage that all the creditors combined can garnish simultaneously. If what's left will be enough for you to live off of, then you may be able to avoid BK. Liens are only good for a few years (in some states); if that's the case, once they expire, you will have your home free and clear as long as they dont renew the lien (not sure of the odds of that).
INIT2WINIT, Thanks for your reply and advice. Here's more info based on your questions... Is this revision grandfathered? If not, it does not apply to you. This would be great & I'll check with a lawyer tomorrow to find out. Have you considered changing jobs to hide for a little while longer until you can get a decent nest egg set aside before you file BK or get into a higher tax bracket to start making payment arrangements? My husband and I are in our mid-50s and I landed a senior management position paying six figures, with benefits, which will be very difficult, if not impossible to walk away from. I was able to get "back in the game" with a wonderful position a year ago and there I need to stay until retirement in 10 years. I can afford to payoff this debt in full--roughly $6k -- but it's unlikely I'll find another job at this level. If we get more lawsuits filed, I'm not sure what we'll do...I don't want to give you the impression that we have significant savings -- we do not. We have 2 out of 3 kids in college, (our firstborn graduated from a private college last year & we owe 70k on tuition loans), my husband drives a 12-year old car with 200,000 miles on it and my car has 90,000 miles and is 6 years old. We have no retirement and ALL we have is the equity in our house which is $250-300k. The BK rules are so strict and if we sell the house, we'll wind up renting, since our FICOS are so bad, unless we can buy something outright. Maybe we need a lawyer to help us with this...what do you think? Susanna
I'm not sure we qualify for Chapter 7, since we have so much equity in our house -- 250-300k. But, that's all we have and we're approaching retirement in 10 years, (if we can afford to.)
I'd rather not sell now, but our mortgage has gone through the roof with an adjustable mortgage that's gone up to a 10% interest rate, making for a $4600/month payment. It's a scary way to live, but we felt we'd get the kids off to college, stay in our family home where they were raised, and then buy something outright with no mortgage in a few years. We'd like to do this on our own terms, but I have to tell you, that we've lived with process servers coming to our door on and off for the last 2 years. It's been "quiet" for 6 months, and we thought with a 3-year SOL we were home free. But, this change to a 6-year SOL opens up too many CA doors to us now. My husband and I have been through the financial wars after his 3-year unemployment and we'll do everything it takes to protect our family and what assets we have left. I'll start reading the threads again to get smarter. Thanks for the great advice.
Refi the house take the money and place it out of harms way it might even lower your payments if not sell or walk away.....
