Personal Bankruptcy Mortgage was supposed to be reaffirmed but wasn't in Chapter 7

[taureau]

I filed for Chapter 7 in January 2005 (reside in Carroll County, GA). I went to the court hearing in early March 2005. The attorney that handled my case had the information to reaffirm the mortgage. Not a week later, I filed for divorce and moved out of my house. Within one week of leaving my residency, I had all my mail forwarding to my parents' house.

I moved back into the house in Feburary 2006, caught up all the late fees and last mortgage payment my ex-husband had not paid, and have paid my monthly bill on time every month. Per my FJD, I'm to have the mortgage put solely in my name.

When I started to do research on what I needed to take on a Qualifying Loan Assumption with my current mortgage company, so that I wouldn't lose my interest rate, or months invested, I discovered the mortgage was never reaffirmed. It took me over 6 months to have the representing attorney return my calls. He told me that immediately after my case, he went out of private practice, and that any paperwork that was handled in regards to my case had been handled and sent to me. I explained that I had filed for divorce immediately following, had my mail forwading immediately after leaving my residency, but that I never received any documents in regard to the reaffirmation. He then told me that he'd done his part and there was nothing he'd do about it and hung up on me.

I contacted to mortgage company several times, and they told me I would have to reopen my bankruptcy, file the reaffirmation, then have it closed again. They have not been reporting any payments that have been paid since the bankruptcy discharge in May 2005.

I need to have this handled immediately before my ex-spouse takes me back to court for not having it done in the alloted time given by the FJD, but I have been going circles trying to find out what best to do. I cannot afford to hire another attorney to handle a case that was paid in full for and should've been handled properly in the first place. I cannot qualify for the assumption since all my payments are not being reported to the mortgage company, and my credit history and score are very low due to the bankruptcy also, so refinancing isn't much of an option.

I posted this explaination of events on another website before, and a member from a mortgage company said she was very surprised that the mortgage company wouldn't accept anything but refiling with the court.

Please, I could do with any advice possible in order for me to (a) be able to take on the qualifying loan assumption, and (b) to have the past payments reported on my credit history.

 

[upsetnTX]

I have a similar situation, but mine went a step further. I gave my atty add'l money to re-open my bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the judge never signed the Order to re-open so when the Reaffirmation Agreement was filed it was rejected as invalid because the case was still closed. I don't know my way around this site yet, but it looks like no legal experts have replied to your post. Am I right?

 

[taureau]

No, I have not receieved a response yet. I have tried sending a private message to one of the 'Legal Experts' that are listed to the right side of the web page, but have not received a response to that yet either. I was hoping that someone would be able to send me in the right direction.

I had posted this on the Clark Howard credit/debt forum a few months back, and someone that worked in the mortgage industry couldn't believe that the mortgage company was requiring I reopen my case to do that since I had been paying my bill every month and more than three years has elapsed since my discharge.

I really need to take care of this ASAP, and I honestly cannot afford to go through court again. It really does aggravate me that the attorney did not inform me that I would be receiving more paperwork, and that I would need to sign and send it on. that would have been helpful so I could have contacted him immediately when I had not received it.

If you happen to find anything more out please let me know!

 

[upsetnTX]

No, I have not receieved a response yet. I have tried sending a private message to one of the 'Legal Experts' that are listed to the right side of the web page, but have not received a response to that yet either. I was hoping that someone would be able to send me in the right direction.

I had posted this on the Clark Howard credit/debt forum a few months back, and someone that worked in the mortgage industry couldn't believe that the mortgage company was requiring I reopen my case to do that since I had been paying my bill every month and more than three years has elapsed since my discharge.

I really need to take care of this ASAP, and I honestly cannot afford to go through court again. It really does aggravate me that the attorney did not inform me that I would be receiving more paperwork, and that I would need to sign and send it on. that would have been helpful so I could have contacted him immediately when I had not received it.

If you happen to find anything more out please let me know!

After discovering that our mortgage was not reaffirmed, I tried to reason with my mortgage company asking that we draw up some type of agreement just between ourselves. Unfortunately, the mortgage company's hands are tied because it's the law. Literally, there is nothing they can do. According to the information I obtained, there are only two ways to change discharged debt AFTER a bankruptcy is case closed: (1) re-open the bankruptcy, file a Reaffirmation Agreement and close the bankruptcy a second time or (2) refinance the debt (which in my case would be nearly impossible to do).

As a result, I looked at my bankruptcy documents. It was very clear in the documents that I had wished to reaffirm my mortgage. So, I decided to speak with my bankruptcy attorney, afterall, it was his fault that it was not done properly. To make matters worse, since I had not discovered his error for almost a year, I had suffered damages to my credit. Had it been done properly my mortgage company would have been reporting my payments to my credit bureau and, that in turn, would have been extremely helpful in building my credit score back up. Since that failed to be done and the longer it failed to be corrected, the more damages were accumulating to my credit NOT being build back! After I explained that to my attorney, he was extremely helpful and told me that he would "waive" his fees if I would just pay the filing fee to re-open our bankruptcy. As a compromise, I thought that was reasonable. I just didn't expect, him to mess up on re-opening the bankruptcy too! Hope this helps you.

 

[taureau]

Thanks. It's more than what I got from the attorney that handled my case. He would n't even admit to his fault in it. Just stated that he had done what he was supposed to do, and hung up on me. Now it's three years later, and I'm trying to get everything straightened out before my ex realizes I'm in contempt. I can't even apply for a secured credit card with my current bank!!!

My mortgage company told me that if I can get the mortgage reaffirmed, that they would report all the payments I've made since the original filing. Although, I'm not sure I want to hold my breath for that!