Blogs

Our Delavan real estate attorney knows that when purchasing a home, not everything goes according to plan. Some mishaps could have devastating impacts on your home purchase and even stop the closing. When interacting with so many people (appraisers, buyer’s agent, seller’s agent, lenders, inspectors, title company personnel, insurance salespersons), you never know where a real estate nightmare will originate. Our Delavan real estate attorney lists 20 closing nightmares that could happen to you.
 

Things That Can Go Wrong During a Delavan Real Estate Transaction
1. The Seller Doesn’t Show Up For The Closing
2. The Seller Doesn’t Fix Specified Repairs
3. The Title to the Home has Incurable Defects
4. The Home Has Several Liens Against It
5. The Home Is Destroyed By Nature or Fire Before Closing
6. No Insurance Company Will Insure the Home
7. The Home Doesn’t Pass Certain Inspections (i.e., Mold, Termites)
8. The Seller Hid a Home Defect
9. The Financial Institution Doesn’t Approve the Loan
10. The Appraiser Devalues the Home
11. The Home is Zoned Incorrectly
12. The Property Has Easement Issues
13. The Seller Leaves With Items Which Were Included in the Sale
14. The Seller Decides Not to Sell
15. The Seller Becomes Ill or Dies
16. A Real Estate Agent Acts Unprofessionally
17. New Home is Not Completed on Time
18. Financial Institution Goes Out of Business
19. Title Company Loses Paperwork
20. Seller Leaves Town Without Signing Paperwork
 
Contact Our Delavan Real Estate Attorney
The aforementioned problems are just a small list of literally hundreds of things that can go wrong during a real estate transaction. It is always smart to have an experienced Delavan real estate attorney on your side. You do not have to go through the real estate process alone. Our Delavan real estate attorney can help protect you from real estate transaction nightmares and take preventative measures to ensure your home purchase goes as planned. Contact our Delavan real estate attorney by phone at 262-725-0175 or by email via our website’s contact page. Wynn at Law, LLC has real estate offices in Lake Geneva, Salem, Muskego, and Delavan, Wisconsin.
 

 
 
*The content and material on this web page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
 

Here at Shenwick & Associates, we're devoted to helping our clients discharge as many of their debts as possible in bankruptcy. We also aggressively attempt to help our clients retain as much of their property as possible after their bankruptcy case is concluded.

However, with regard to property that's secured by a debt, whether a debtor can retain that property will often depend on whether he or she is willing to sign a reaffirmation agreement. We covered reaffirmation agreements in a recent e-mail, but have recently done some more investigation into the topic, which we wanted to share with you.

As a hypothetical, let's say we have a married couple, filing jointly, who own a house with a mortgage and are current on their mortgage payments. There is no equity in the house. They want to keep their house after their bankruptcy case is concluded and continue to pay their mortgage during the pendency of the bankruptcy case. Does this couple need to file a reaffirmation agreement with the secured creditor? Our answer, for cases filed in the Second Circuit (New York, Connecticut and Vermont) is no.

Prior to the enactment of BAPCPA in 2005, courts in several circuits (including the 2nd Circuit in Capital Communications Federal Credit Union v. Boodrow (In re Boodrow) and BankBoston, N.A. v. Sokolowski (In re Sokolowski) had held that debtors had the option (the "ride through option") to retain both real property and personal property collateral and maintain current performance on the loan. Furthermore, secured creditors could not foreclose based solely on the debtor's filing of a bankruptcy petition and failure to reaffirm.

When BAPCPA was enacted, 11 U.S.C. §§ 521(a)(6) (which governs the debtor's duties with respect to secured personal property) and 362(h) (which governs termination of the automatic stay with respect to secured personal property) specifically eliminated the ride through option for personal property. However, decisions in several circuits (including a decision from Connecticut, In re Caraballo) have held that Boodrow and Sokolowski remain binding authority that the ride through option is still in effect with respect to real property. Accordingly, in New York a mortgage on a house does not need to be reaffirmed, but a loan on secured personal property needs to be reaffirmed.

As with all of our opinions expressed in these e-mails, this is not legal advice–every bankruptcy case is different and we cannot render legal advice without being retained. To discuss your unique situation with respect to your personal and real property, reaffirmation of secured debts and whether bankruptcy is right for you, please contact Jim Shenwick.

CBS News.com reports “Overdraft fees are raking in billions of dollars for the banking industry. But who’s paying them? Predominantly a tiny subset of consumers: young, working in lower-wage jobs and heavy users of debit cards.
Surveying 304 individuals who reported paying more than $100 in overdraft fees during the past year, the Pew Charitable Trust found that the bulk — 67 percent — of those paying hefty overdraft charges are working but earning less than $50,000 annually. Roughly one-third earn $25,000 or less. Their preferred method of payment is a debit card, and more than a third of them are under age 36.
Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they paid more than a week’s wages in overdraft fees in the past year, with one in four reporting that the charges added to $300 annually or more. Nearly one in five of these individuals said overdrafts cost them $500 or more last year.” Read more…

The post 5 Ways to Cut Costly Overdraft Fees appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.

“Charge off” is accounting jargon for the formal determination that the creditor is no longer treating its claim against you as an asset.   It permits the creditor to take a “wholly worthless bad debt” deduction on its taxes under Sec. 1244 of the IRC.    It does not mean the creditor has released its claim and it cannot pursue you.  Any payments received after the debt is charged off are treated differently for tax purposes.   And that its claim against the reorganized debtor is not on its balance sheet above the line.
What it does mean is that the creditors still retains the right to collect the full amount of debt and have a variety of options available to them. Depending upon the situation, the creditor may have internal collections staff pursue collection or sell it to an external collector, or the creditor may elect to sue on the entire debt.
Statute of limitations: most debtors do not understand that the creditor has a limited amount of time to collect on the debt.  That time limit is call the “statute of limitations” and differs in each state.  Here is a link to an article on Credit.com listing the statutes by state: Statutes of Limitation on Debt Collection.  WARNING: this list may not be accurate so it is very important you talk with an experienced attorney to determine your rights.

The post Do I Have to Pay a Debt that Was “Charged Off”? appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.