Fight Colo foreclosure by myself ...
November 28, 2010 9:58 AM Subscribe
I do feel that that my foreclosure is not properly being done and think I could delay it while they start again.
Here is my story:
I was laid off and haven't paid my mortgage so they started foreclosure ... by posting a notice and telling me they were going to advertise in the paper for 5 weeks. I filed chapter 7 which stopped things but now I received a notice in the mail of a 'restart' and a list of dates that they were suppose to have already notified me in the newspaper. Here is what I believe are the facts:
They didn't advertise the first time.
They didn't advertise the second time (second set of dates in letter)
They didn't post a notice on the door the second time.
They sent me two different sets of notices the second time, with two different sales dates and two different sets of lien holders.
Now I know there is suppose to be a rule 120 hearing but I can't find any information on whether the hearing is held before or after the mailed notices and what I can do as a non lawyer to bring up these issues and make them do it all again. For all I know, they had the hearing already without notifying me and / or get to 'skip' it or something.
So what do I want? A job. Do I want to keep the house? Not really, I don't see any hope for someone laid off for 1 year. But any time I can buy will save me money on rent.
Anyone out there had any luck GOING to a 120 hearing? At what point is a 120 hearing scheduled? How can I make one happen?
Here is my story:
I was laid off and haven't paid my mortgage so they started foreclosure ... by posting a notice and telling me they were going to advertise in the paper for 5 weeks. I filed chapter 7 which stopped things but now I received a notice in the mail of a 'restart' and a list of dates that they were suppose to have already notified me in the newspaper. Here is what I believe are the facts:
They didn't advertise the first time.
They didn't advertise the second time (second set of dates in letter)
They didn't post a notice on the door the second time.
They sent me two different sets of notices the second time, with two different sales dates and two different sets of lien holders.
Now I know there is suppose to be a rule 120 hearing but I can't find any information on whether the hearing is held before or after the mailed notices and what I can do as a non lawyer to bring up these issues and make them do it all again. For all I know, they had the hearing already without notifying me and / or get to 'skip' it or something.
So what do I want? A job. Do I want to keep the house? Not really, I don't see any hope for someone laid off for 1 year. But any time I can buy will save me money on rent.
Anyone out there had any luck GOING to a 120 hearing? At what point is a 120 hearing scheduled? How can I make one happen?
Get a bankruptcy attorney. You may think you're broke and can't afford one, but the reality is you can't NOT afford one -- and you're risking losing your home.
It's possible to file Chapter 7 pro se and work through it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a pretty simple situation. The fact that you are already in foreclosure means you do not have a simple situation. I would bet that if you do not retain an attorney starting tomorrow morning, you are going to lose your home. (I know you expect that already.) Sorry.
The stuff you're coming up with to contest it ... well, if you have the chops to file motions and so on you can get hearings in federal court all by yourself. I wouldn't expect the bankruptcy judge to be sympathetic to blatant delaying tactics, though. They've seen it all.
In any case, what you can do as a debtor is log onto your district's website; from there they will have a link to the appropriate PACER gateway. PACER has some fees associated, but unless you're a pro se fiend you're not going to run up big charges. You can look up your case and find out your bankruptcy hearing schedule. You can probably find this by calling the clerk's office first thing in the morning, too. They have no reason to make this a mystery. This is a generic timeline.
The foreclosure, on the other hand, is going to be in your local circuit court. If you have an electronic lookup available for that you can find the status and dates that way, otherwise, pick up the phone and call. This is all I can find about the Rule 120 meeting. Looks like pro se is a risky approach, because you won't even know what arguments you can make. An attorney will have six or seven options up their sleeve cold.
posted by dhartung at 10:23 PM on November 28, 2010
It's possible to file Chapter 7 pro se and work through it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a pretty simple situation. The fact that you are already in foreclosure means you do not have a simple situation. I would bet that if you do not retain an attorney starting tomorrow morning, you are going to lose your home. (I know you expect that already.) Sorry.
The stuff you're coming up with to contest it ... well, if you have the chops to file motions and so on you can get hearings in federal court all by yourself. I wouldn't expect the bankruptcy judge to be sympathetic to blatant delaying tactics, though. They've seen it all.
In any case, what you can do as a debtor is log onto your district's website; from there they will have a link to the appropriate PACER gateway. PACER has some fees associated, but unless you're a pro se fiend you're not going to run up big charges. You can look up your case and find out your bankruptcy hearing schedule. You can probably find this by calling the clerk's office first thing in the morning, too. They have no reason to make this a mystery. This is a generic timeline.
The foreclosure, on the other hand, is going to be in your local circuit court. If you have an electronic lookup available for that you can find the status and dates that way, otherwise, pick up the phone and call. This is all I can find about the Rule 120 meeting. Looks like pro se is a risky approach, because you won't even know what arguments you can make. An attorney will have six or seven options up their sleeve cold.
posted by dhartung at 10:23 PM on November 28, 2010
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2. If they sent you 2 sets of notices the second time, it sounds like you received notice... So your argument that they didn't post it on the door I wouldn't think would hold a lot of weight with the judge, although it sounds like you are technically right.
3. In Michigan at least you get like a 6 month redemption period. So you would get to live in the house 6 months after the sale date. Then you would get an additional 2-3 months AFTER the redemption period to stay in the house because they can't just kick you out, they have to evict you by legal process. This costs them $$$. So often you can negotiate with the mortgage company and get a few thousand dollars in return for leaving early. It saves them the hassle and cost of hiring an attorney and evicting you.
4. All these things should be discussed with your BK attorney. You've already retained him, he should know the ins and outs of the foreclosure process quite well and can advise you further.
posted by banished at 10:32 AM on November 28, 2010