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Jordan E. Bublick is a Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer - Kendall & Aventura Offices - (305) 891-4055
A short sale involves the mortgage lender (or lenders) agreeing to a homeowner to sell his home for a price less than enough to payoff the mortgage in full. The lender agrees to satisfy its mortgage lien for an amount less than a full pay-off so as to allow the sale of the real estate. As the net proceeds of the sales price is less than the full amount due on the mortgage lien(s), the mortgage holder(s) must agree to accept a "short" payoff in exchange for release of its mortgage lien.
Many homeowners facing foreclosure consider a "short sale", but have a difficult time understanding all of its implications. Some property owners that attempt to achieve a short sale are not successful in their efforts. Many seem to indicate frustration in the attempt to communicate with the mortgage lender(s) and/or actually complete a short sale. In addition, many lenders may be under contractual or regulatory restrictions that may not permit them to agree to a short sale.
Apparently the most difficult item in the short sale process is communicating with the lender and any second mortgage holder, such as the holder of a "home equity loan." In addition to the agreement of the first mortgage holder, the agreement of any junior mortgage holders must also be obtained. Outstanding judgments or tax liens may also be an issue as the buyer would need to receive clear title.
The process of obtaining a short sale usually takes several weeks to pursue and one needs to furnish substantial documentation, including personal financial information such as paycheck stubs, bank statements, 401(k) statements, and tax returns. One may also need to furnish information about a hardship.
Release from Liability
One of the most important issues in the short sale is whether the homeowner is actually released from liability for the "short" or unpaid amount. If the mortgage company and/or the second mortgage company do not release a person from liability for the unpaid portion, the benefit of a short sale to a homeowner may be questioned.
Jordan E. Bublick - Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer - Kendall & Aventura Offices - (305) 891-4055 - www.bublicklaw.com
(305) 891-4055 - Free Initial Consultation - Office: Kendall - Aventura - Jordan E. Bublick - 25 Years Experience - www.bublicklaw.com
Chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcy are the types of bankruptcy used by individuals to obtain debt relief. Chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcy each provides for different requirements and relief. In general chapter 13 provides for an opportunity to reorganize your debt and chapter 7 provides for an opportunity to just discharge your debt.
Chapter 13 Chapter 13 bankruptcy is often used by people with higher incomes and substantial non-exempt property to formulate a chapter 13 plan to reorganize their debt while under the protection of the bankruptcy court. Under a chapter 13 plan, you are able to reorganize your secured debt (such as mortgages and car loans) as wells as unsecured debt (credit cards and personal loans). Often you are only required to back only 10% to 20% of you unsecured debt and discharge the rest. A typical chapter 13 plan is over a period of 3 to 5 years.
Chapter 7 Chapter 7 bankruptcy is usually used by people with lower income and little non-exempt property. Under chapter 7 unsecured debt, such as credit cards and loans, is discharged, unless it falls within the categories of non-dischargeable debts, such as student loans and some types of taxes.
Mortgage ModificationChapter 13 bankruptcy is also used by people who are behind with their mortgages and to save their homes from foreclosure. Under a chapter 13 plan, you are able to take various approaches. You may reinstate your mortgage by catching up-to-date your past due payments over a period of up to 5 years.
Totally underwater second mortgages on residential property may be wholly avoided. Maintenance association liens may be avoided to the extent they are not secured by equity in the real estate.
Mortgage Modification MediationYou may use the bankruptcy court's new mortgage modification mediation program ("MMM") [previously called the loss mitigation mediation ("LMM") program] to negotiate with your mortgage company to achieve a modification of your mortgage.
cJordan E. Bublick is a Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer - www.bublicklaw.com
Filing for bankruptcy is actually a very serious step and, unless properly approached, may lead to unfortunate consequences. Bankruptcy is filed in a U.S Bankruptcy Court - a Court that actually has so much power that it can actually stop the U.S. Supreme Court from acting - let alone virtually almost all Court in the entire United States and in theory possibly any Court in the world.
.jpg "only file bankruptcy if beneficial")
When a bankruptcy is filed when inappropriate, under the wrong chapter, or prepared improperly - you most likely will be in a worse situation than you are now.
That being said - bankruptcy would be used if it is appropriate, beneficial, filed under the correct chapter and the schedules prepared properly.
Real Examples1. Disclosure - failure to disclose all property. Failure to properly disclose property is bankruptcy crime. Recently a person in South Florida was charged with a bankruptcy crime for failing to disclose a Rolex watch.
2. Debt Not-Dischargeable - 95% of the debt is non-dischargeable student loans.
3. No Debt - if the collection of all of the debt is barred by the statute of limitations.
4. Corporations - in most cases chapter 7 in not needed for a small business, you may wind-down and close a corporation under state law without filing for bankruptcy.
5. Just Paid Today - just got paid today and need to pay mortgage
6. $8,000 Life Savings in the Bank - unless its exempt, such as being traceable to social security, but even then, you need to prove it
7. Tax Refund - its December and there will be a large IRS refund on April 15th.
8. Income Taxes - income taxes will be dischargable if the case is filed in a few more months
9. Transfers - your just paid back a family member, friend, or anyone a large loan
10. Legal Advice - from an uncles who is a lawyer in New Jersey
11. Eviction - to buy a few more days
12. Urban Legend - doing it inappropriately because "everybody at work did it"
13. Foreclosures - to discharge a potential mortgage deficiency on your home - the mortgage lender may never bring it
14. Exemptions - recently moved to Florida from another state, another state's exemptions apply, and alot of your property is subject to liquidation in a chapter 7 case
15. Too Much Property - substantial amount of property that is not exempt and the chapter 7 trustee is able to liquidate a lot of property
16. Too Much Income - an "abusive filing" and that will be dismissed or converted to chapter 13 or 1
17. Intangible Property - intangible property is real property. A potential personal injury claim or interest in a trust or estate may be very valuable. Non-exempt intangible property is not yours anymore when you file chapter 7 - it belongs to the chapter 7 trustee. That valuable personal claim - all the chapter 7 trustee has to do is pick up the phone and settle for whatever he deems appropriate by the Court - in most case, you get nothing.
18. Chapter 7 - when should have filed under chapter 13
19. Chapter 13 - when should have filed under chapter 7, such as little income and no non-exempt property
20. Cooperation - full cooperation with a chapter 7 trustee is required and the failure to do so may result in the lack of discharge of debt
21. Only One Large Creditor - sometimes if there is only one creditor, you are just moving the state court case over to the Bankruptcy Court - even worse, the creditor may have more power over you in a bankruptcy case
22. Valuable Real Estate in Another Country - a chapter 7 trustee can have a real estate broker in the other country sell it
23. Property Owned Together with Spouse - the exemption for property owned as "tenants by the entireties" is not always not a good bet as does not always fully work or is very difficult to prove
Jordan E. Bublick is a Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer - www.bublicklaw.com
(305) 891-4055 - Free Initial Consultation - Office: Kendall - Aventura - Bankruptcy Attorney Jordan E. Bublick - 25 Years Experience - www.bublicklaw.com
Chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcy are the types of bankruptcy used by individuals to obtain debt relief. Chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcy each provides for different requirements and relief. In general chapter 13 provides for an opportunity to reorganize your debt and chapter 7 provides for an opportunity to just discharge your debt.
Chapter 13 Chapter 13 bankruptcy is often used by people with higher incomes and substantial non-exempt property to formulate a chapter 13 plan to reorganize their debt while under the protection of the bankruptcy court. Under a chapter 13 plan, you are able to reorganize your secured debt (such as mortgages and car loans) as wells as unsecured debt (credit cards and personal loans). Often you are only required to back only 10% to 20% of you unsecured debt and discharge the rest. A typical chapter 13 plan is over a period of 3 to 5 years.
Chapter 7 Chapter 7 bankruptcy is usually used by people with lower income and little non-exempt property. Under chapter 7 unsecured debt, such as credit cards and loans, is discharged, unless it falls within the categories of non-dischargeable debts, such as student loans and some types of taxes.
Mortgage ModificationChapter 13 bankruptcy is also used by people who are behind with their mortgages and to save their homes from foreclosure. Under a chapter 13 plan, you are able to take various approaches. You may reinstate your mortgage by catching up-to-date your past due payments over a period of up to 5 years.
Totally underwater second mortgages on residential property may be wholly avoided. Maintenance association liens may be avoided to the extent they are not secured by equity in the real estate.
Mortgage Modification MediationYou may use the bankruptcy court's new mortgage modification mediation program ("MMM") [previously called the loss mitigation mediation ("LMM") program] to negotiate with your mortgage company to achieve a modification of your mortgage.
Jordan E. Bublick - Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer - Kendall & Aventura Offices - (305) 891-4055 - www.bublicklaw.com
A person finally makes the difficult decision to file bankruptcy. They collect all of their financial information, go through unpaid bills and collection notices, and file a bankruptcy petition in order to obtain a bankruptcy discharge of debts they simply cannot pay. This is one of the most difficult decisions a person will make.
The reason the Bankruptcy Code was established by Congress was to provide the honest but unfortunate debtor a fresh start by providing them with a bankruptcy discharge. The honest but unfortunate debtor the bankruptcy laws were enacted to protect, do not have the ability to pay their debts. Now, banks and other creditors are continuing to harm a person who filed bankruptcy and received a bankruptcy discharge by keeping the bankruptcy discharged debts active on credit reports. This action violates the discharge order and the United States Trustees are investigating banks and other creditors for violations of the Bankruptcy Code. For more information about this practice please read this article in the New York Times.
At The Reissman Law Group, we routinely advise clients to wait approximately sixty days after receiving their bankruptcy discharge to pull their credit report. If the credit report shows any inaccuracies, we advise the client to file a dispute with the credit reporting agency. Usually, the agency will do an investigation and if a debt has been discharged, the credit reporting agency will update the information to indicate the debt was included in a bankruptcy discharge. If the agency does not update their file, then we will contact the creditor directly and provide them with the bankruptcy information and give them an opportunity to correct the issue. If this action fails, we can reopen a case and ask the bankruptcy judge to sanction the creditor for violating the bankruptcy discharge.
If you have filed bankruptcy and you still have debts being reported on your credit report contact us today for a free consultation. The attorneys at The Reissman Law Group will fight for your rights that are being violated after you receive your bankruptcy discharge.
The post No Relief After Bankruptcy Discharge appeared first on St. Petersburg Law Blog.
A person finally makes the difficult decision to file bankruptcy. They collect all of their financial information, go through unpaid bills and collection notices, and file a bankruptcy petition in order to obtain a bankruptcy discharge of debts they simply cannot pay. This is one of the most difficult decisions a person will make.
The reason the Bankruptcy Code was established by Congress was to provide the honest but unfortunate debtor a fresh start by providing them with a bankruptcy discharge. The honest but unfortunate debtor the bankruptcy laws were enacted to protect, do not have the ability to pay their debts. Now, banks and other creditors are continuing to harm a person who filed bankruptcy and received a bankruptcy discharge by keeping the bankruptcy discharged debts active on credit reports. This action violates the discharge order and the United States Trustees are investigating banks and other creditors for violations of the Bankruptcy Code. For more information about this practice please read this article in the New York Times.
At The Reissman Law Group, we routinely advise clients to wait approximately sixty days after receiving their bankruptcy discharge to pull their credit report. If the credit report shows any inaccuracies, we advise the client to file a dispute with the credit reporting agency. Usually, the agency will do an investigation and if a debt has been discharged, the credit reporting agency will update the information to indicate the debt was included in a bankruptcy discharge. If the agency does not update their file, then we will contact the creditor directly and provide them with the bankruptcy information and give them an opportunity to correct the issue. If this action fails, we can reopen a case and ask the bankruptcy judge to sanction the creditor for violating the bankruptcy discharge.
If you have filed bankruptcy and you still have debts being reported on your credit report contact us today for a free consultation. The attorneys at The Reissman Law Group will fight for your rights that are being violated after you receive your bankruptcy discharge.
The post No Relief After Bankruptcy Discharge appeared first on St. Petersburg Law Blog.
If you’re angling towards qualifying for public service loan forgiveness, you should enroll your federal student loans into income-based repayment. If you don’t, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a program for federal student loan relief commonly called part of, “The Obama Plan,” in spite of the fact that it was part of The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2007.
Under the program, Federal student loans were made eligible for tax-free forgiveness as a way to spur more college graduates to enter public service. To be eligible, Federal loan borrowers are required to make 120 eligible loan repayments on their eligible Federal loans while employed in eligible employment. After 120 qualifying payments are made, any remaining balance can be forgiven.
Under the program, you must be employed full-time by the federal, state or city government or a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. You must make your 120 payments while employed full-time by one of these qualifying employers.
Only Federal Direct Loans or loans owed directly to the Federal Government are eligible for forgiveness.
Choose Your Repayment Option Wisely
For payments to count towards your eligibility, you must make those payments under Income Based Repayment, Income Contingent Repayment, Pay As You Earn or the Standard (ten-year) Repayment Plan. Payments made under any of the extended or graduated repayment plans don’t count towards public service loan forgiveness.
If your federal student loans are under either the extended or graduated repayment options, you need to call your federal student loan servicer immediately and get into a different repayment option. If you don’t, you’re wasting your time and money.
Income-Based Repayment Works Best
If you qualify, opting for income-based repayment will save you the most money in federal student loan payments (I’m using income-based repayment as a catch-all for IBR as well as Pay-As-You-Earn, by the way – use whichever one you qualify for).
Under IBR, your federal student loan payments will adjust annually based on your income (15% under IBR, 10% for newer borrowers who qualify for PAYE). If your income rises, your federal student loan payments will go up – but if it goes down, so will your payments.
At the end of 25 years (20 years if you’re a newer borrower and qualify for PAYE), the unpaid balance of your federal student loans is forgiven. That balance may result in a tax liability based on your financial situation at that time.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness Cuts IBR Short (And Tax-Free)
If you qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, the unpaid balance of your federal student loans is forgiven after 10 years of payments (120 months). The forgiven amount is tax-free, so you don’t have to worry about a potential tax burden.
In that way, Public Service Loan Forgiveness effectively cuts IBR down from 25 years (or 20 under PAYE) to 10 years. That’s a significant savings, both in time and money.
IBR Is An Insurance Policy
Let’s say you’re working in a qualifying job and decided to go the usual route of forbearance for as long as possible on your federal student loans. After 3-4 years, you run out of forbearances so you start making payments based on the standard repayment plan because your income is high enough that you don’t qualify to enter IBR or PAYE.
Your monthly federal student loan payment is higher than it would be under IBR or PAYE. Plus, you’re locked into that public service job for a full 10 years.
If you’d chosen IBR the day you got out of school, however, you would have a choice of either staying in public service for 10 years or going out to get a better paying position. Or you may decide to leave the work force for other reasons such as starting a family or trying your hand at self-employment.
If you’re in IBR, you remain in the program even if you leave public service. Once you’re in, you’re in. Count to 25 years (even those years when your income is so low that your monthly payment is $0) and you can wipe out the unpaid balance of your federal student loans.
Plan For The Future
When you finish school you don’t know where you’ll be in the next 10 years (or, for some people, even the next 3 years). By making the right long-term decisions that account for any possibilities, you open yourself up to the greatest number of student loan debt relief options.
Exemption Amounts Every homeowner who is considering filing chapter 7 bankruptcy, understandably wants to know whether or not their house is going to be protected if they file for bankruptcy. In most cases, the home is going to be protected through the process. This is mostly due to the fact that there is not significant+ Read More
The post Can I Keep My Home And File Chapter 7? appeared first on David M. Siegel.
Dendreon Corp, the maker of the world’s first cancer vaccine, filed for bankruptcy protection this Monday.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy has been filed as Dendreon faces an outstanding $620 million in convertible debt that is due in 2016. The Seattle-based company listed over $664 million in total debts and $364.6 million in assets.
The arrangement requires a recapitalization of Dendreon, or a sale of the company and all its assets, according to a statement released today. The company also indicated it had agreed on financial restructuring terms with several bond holders.
Provenge was approved in 2010 as the first immunotherapy and was intended to treat patients with advanced-stage prostate cancer. Drug sales never met its expectations as Provenge is difficult to administer and cost $93,000.
The treatment requires a patient’s extraction of white blood cells to be mixed with vaccine components. The combination is then provided as an infusion.
The high cost of manufacturing Provenge specifically hurt Dendreon and allowed several competitors to surpass the company.
Dendreon reported only $283.7 million in revenue in 2013, significantly smaller than 2012’s $325.3 million.
"The business is fundamentally unprofitable so, without a change to efficiencies in the manufacturing process, it's really difficult to see them coming back as a standalone company," according to Wedbush Securities analyst David Nierengarten.
Dendreon dispensed several staff and cost-cutting actions over the past years after the company realized revenue growth would take much longer than expected.
By summer 2014, it was clear that cost cutting alone would not make Dendreon "independently viable with its existing capital structure," according to general counsel Robert Crotty.
Shares of Dendreon plummeted Monday, dropping 70 cents to 24 cents in one afternoon of trading. The stock posted below $1 earlier this quarter, as compared to $2.99 at the close of 2013.
Dendreon said it plans to resume operations during the restructuring and will continue to provide Provenge to patients.
The post Cancer Vaccine Maker Dendreon Files for Bankruptcy appeared first on The Bankruptcy Blog.
When you leave school, you won’t have to begin repaying your federal student loan right away. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do just that.
Stafford Loans come with a six month grace period that starts when you leave school or drop below half-time enrollment. During that six-month window, you won’t be required to make payments on your federal student loans.
But consider this: if you apply for income-based repayment, your student loan payment is set at 15% of your discretionary income (the difference between your adjusted gross income and 150 percent of the poverty guideline amount for your state of residence and family size, divided by 12). Under Pay-As-You-Earn, your payment is 10% of your discretionary income.
Disposable income is determined by your income for the previous calendar year – a year in which you likely weren’t making very much money. And if you made very little money, your federal student loan payment may be as little as $0 per month.
That amount resets each year when you do your taxes, so you’d likely have that low payment until February of next year.
Still, you may be wondering why you shouldn’t simply ride out the grace period or take some forbearance time to give yourself a little breathing room.
The reason why that’s a bad idea is that you qualify for IBR or PAYE only if you’re experiencing a financial hardship that doesn’t allow you to repay your federal student loans on your current salary. Once you’re in the program you no longer need to qualify, and can’t be kicked out of it so long as you make your regular payments.
If you wait until you’re making a decent salary then you may not qualify for IBR or PAYE at all.
Once in repayment under IBR or PAYE, the clock begins to tick on the discharge of your student loan balance. If you’re in IBR, the unpaid balance of your student loans is discharged after 25 years; if you qualify for PAYE, the balance disappears after 20 years. It makes sense to start that clock ticking now rather than waiting for six months or more.
In order to take advantage of this tactic, you need to request a shorter grace period by contacting your loan servicer. Once that’s done, you can be on your way to repayment … and to ultimately wiping out a bigger chunk of your federal student loan.
By the way, this applies to federal student loans only. There is no IBR or PAYE for private student loans.
Updated daily, this blog will keep you informed on the latest bankruptcy news! 
Learn more about how Bankruptcy works and what you need to know.