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Bringing you the most up-to-date news, tips and blogs throughout the web. Here’s your Bankruptcy Update for December 19, 2013 Ski center slaloms toward bankruptcy finish line Bankruptcy Auction Yet to Produce Buyer for Atlantic Club Bankruptcy judge suspends trial over proposed swaps settlement  

As of 2013 this nation’s second largest consumer debt market is student loans.  It is predicted that student loan defaults will be the next financial tidal wave to hit the nation.  Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that outstanding student debt totals approximately $1.2 trillion. The Bureau also estimates that 7 million student loan borrowers are now in default on their debt.
More than 40 million Americans with student debt depend on student loan servicers to serve as their primary point of contact about their loans.  Student loan servicers’ duties typically include managing borrowers’ accounts, processing monthly payments, and communicating directly with borrowers. When facing unemployment or other financial hardship, borrowers contact student loan servicers in order to enroll in alternative repayment plans, obtain deferments or forbearances, or request a modification of loan terms.
CFPB issued a rule December 5, 2013 that allows the Bureau to supervise certain nonbank student loan servicers for the first time. Under this new rule, which was proposed in March, the Bureau estimates that it will have authority to supervise the seven largest student loan servicers. Combined, those seven service the loans of more than 49 million borrower accounts, representing most of the activity in the student loan servicing market.
Borrowers submitted complaints to the Bureau highlighting:

• Prepayment Stumbling Blocks: Since options to refinance high-rate private student loans are limited, many consumers attempt to pay off their loans in order to reduce the amount of interest owed over the life of the loan. But many consumers express confusion about how to pay off their loans early. For example, borrowers complained that servicers applied their payments in excess of the amount due across all their loans, not to the highest-interest rate loan that they would prefer to pay off first.
• Partial Payment Snags: When borrowers have multiple loans with one servicer and are unable to pay their bill in full, many servicers instruct borrowers to make whatever payment they can afford. Many complaints described how servicers often divide up the partial payment and apply it evenly across all of the loans in their account. This maximizes the late fees charged to the consumer, and it can exacerbate the negative credit impact of a single late payment.
• Servicing Transfer Surprises: When borrowers’ loans are transferred between servicers, borrowers say they experience lost paperwork, processing errors that result in late fees, and interruptions of routine communication, such as billing statements. Consumers complained that payment-processing policies can vary depending on the servicer. And, consumers said when they make decisions on the previous servicer’s practices, they can get penalized.

The post CFPB To Oversee Student Loan Servicers appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.

Across the nation property values are on the increase.  Each state is seeing a different percentage of turn around, but each state is seeing some positive results.  “CoreLogic …just released new analysis showing approximately 791,000 more residential properties returned to a state of positive equity during the third quarter of 2013, and the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity currently stands at 42.6 million. The analysis indicates that nearly 6.4 million homes, or 13 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were still in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2013. This figure is down from 7.2 million homes, or 14.7 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, at the end of the second quarter of 2013.”
Arizona has the third highest negative equity – with approximately 22% negative and 4% near negative equity.
In an effort to look at the glass as half full – I am happy that property is once again appreciating in value.  My concern is that most of the HELOC (home equity lines of credit, or second loans on the home) come due starting in 2014.   Most likely the maturity of these loans will result in another wave of defaults.  This will result in additional foreclosures because the homeowner cannot sell their home due to the total debt.
The post Negative Equity in Home – Chart by State appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.

Across the State of Nebraska, you could have heard a collective groan of debtor attorneys as the Nebraska Bankruptcy Court issued a new ruling limiting the ability of debtors to avoid liens in motor vehicles.  In the case of In re Cardwell, the Court ruled that a debtor may not utilize the “Tool of the Trade” exemption of Nebraska statute 25-1556 to avoid such liens unless the vehicle is actually used in the debtor’s trade.

The debtors owned a 2006 Pontiac Montana worth $1,200 and a 1992 Ford F-150 pickup truck worth $800, and they pledged both car titles to First State Bank for a new loan.  After the bankruptcy case was filed, their attorney filed a motion seeking to avoid the liens since Bankruptcy Code 522(f) allows debtors to void liens.
The problem in Cardwell is that neither debtor was self-employed and although they used the vehicles to commute to and from work, they did not use the vehicles to perform their jobs.  As the court noted, the vehicles were used solely for personal purposes and to commute to work.  Therefore, the Court ruled that the vehicles did not qualify as “tools of the trade.”
This is a devastating ruling for debtors who have pledged their vehicle to acquire high interest rate Title Loans.  For decades, Nebraska bankruptcy attorneys have used this statute to return car titles, but now they will have to limit this procedure to cases where a debtor can show the vehicle is actually used in their trade.

the Court did not state is how much a debtor must use a vehicle in their job to enable them to avoid these liens

At first glance it appeared the lien avoidance power was completely abolished for everyone but the self-employed, but a more careful reading of the opinion reveals that debtors may be able to avoid liens in many cases. It is important to note that the Court did not state is how much a debtor must use a vehicle in their job to enable them to avoid these liens.  For example, paralegals in our law firm frequently use their vehicles to make trips to the Post Office or to file documents in the courthouse.  Is that enough use to invoke the avoidance power?  Nebraska bankruptcy attorneys will need to emphasize how a debtor utilizes their vehicle in their job to gain access to the lien avoidance power.