Stop Foreclosure With a Bankruptcy. Is This Really a Good Defense?

[Moe]

Stop foreclosure with bankruptcy?

Congress revised the nation's bankruptcy laws under 2005's Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, effectively making it more difficult for consumers to protect themselves. My belief is that the new revisions are protecting banks and lenders more than the consumers. Now, as victims from the subprime mess continue to grow, bankruptcy filings are going up and this may yet be another kink in the growing mortgage crisis.

Filing bankruptcy up until 2005 was pretty inexpensive proceeding. Most places would have it done for under $1,000. Some places have gone up 50% to 100%. That's a real big barrier for homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

Here are some excerpts from a Smart Money article/interview with attorney Henry Sommer, who also serves as the supervising attorney of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project in Philadelphia:

SmartMoney.com: Why do you think the number of bankruptcy filings is higher so far this year than last year?
Henry Sommer: The number of bankruptcy filings has gone up steadily. They went way down right when the law went into effect [in 2005] — primarily because people rushed to file beforehand. Since then, it's only at 70% of levels before.... It has been steadily going up. Certainly, people having problems with their mortgages is one reason why they're filing.

SM: How do you propose to change the bankruptcy law?
HS: There are a couple of different types of changes we propose. One is to make filing for bankruptcy less complicated. One of the side effects of the new law — and I'd like to think Congress didn't intend this — is the phenomenal increase in paperwork and cost associated with filing, and it's therefore denying access to people who can't afford them. So one type of change we'd like to see is a cutback on the paperwork and the expense of bankruptcy. The other is that bankruptcy laws be changed to give people more tools to deal with foreclosures, including these exploding adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) you see now, where payments just go so high because of the interest rate adjustments. So we propose changes to make bankruptcy more useful.

SM: What's an example of that?
HS: Typically, when people face a foreclosure, bankruptcy has allowed them to take up to five years to catch up on their arrearages. In a Chapter 13 case, [usually you would] start paying your monthly mortgage payment of, say, $1,000. You [pay] arrearages over 12 months.... Bankruptcy allows you to do that. That's worked well for people who had a temporary income interruption that caused them to fall behind on payments. [Our proposal] gives three, four or five years to catch up, instead of typically two months.... The two months, or slightly longer, is how long mortgage companies will usually give debtors to catch up outside of bankruptcy.

That doesn't work so well when your monthly payment has been bumped up because of an adjustable rate mortgage. That's the problem suddenly facing a lot of people. It doesn't work if you can't even afford the monthly payment. Our proposal is to take the ARMs and re-amortize them over 30 years as a fixed rate. They'd do that as part of Chapter 13 bankruptcy. [This would apply] if your house was overappraised or it's fallen in value. Say you got a 100% mortgage for your $200,000 house, and now it's worth $170,000. You re-amortize it over 30 years and pay off the mortgage that way. That's the crux of our proposal — strip down the mortgage to the current value of the house and re-amortize that over 30 years. We're hoping that will be introduced in Congress in September.

SM: Is that considered at least a partial loan forgiveness?
HS: No, definitely not. It's been done for years with cars. In 1978 [when the law was first established] we didn't have these kinds of mortgages either. Even if it made sense in 1978, it doesn't make sense now.
We're not trying to repeal the 2005 law wholesale, but we're trying to get rid of the excess paperwork and deal with the particular mortgage problem, which really wasn't addressed in the 2005 revisions. One of the nice things about bankruptcy until 2005 was that it was a pretty inexpensive proceeding. Most places would have it done for under $1,000. Some places have gone up 50% to 100%. That's a real big barrier.

SM: How much paperwork are we talking about?
HS: The paperwork is roughly doubled. Among other things, debtors must provide tax returns, 60 days' worth of pay stubs, bank statements and complete a six-page "means testing" form. All of these are new requirements, along with the requirement of obtaining credit counseling before bankruptcy and a credit education course during the case. On top of this, the United States Trustee's office, part of the Justice Department, often demands numerous additional documents, like six months' worth of pay stubs, two years of tax returns, all credit card statements.

SM: Steve Bartlett, president and chief executive of Financial Services Roundtable, an organization that represents financial-services companies, in May testified in Congress that the new bankruptcy reform law is working well as evidenced by the big decrease in filings since it was enacted.
HS: I disagree with him. He's employed by banks and other creditors. He bases that on the fact that the number of bankruptcy filings are down. He said the number of bankruptcies was down something like 40%.... But what about all the people who want to file but can't? People aren't filing because it's much more difficult. It's something of a misperception out there that you can't file for bankruptcy anymore.

SM: Why do people think that?
HS: There was kind of a superficial publicity when the new law went into effect. Many were told that by debt collectors, which of course makes the debt collectors' job easier. That's another reason why that [notion] will slowly go away — when people know of others who have file for bankruptcy.

One of the things mortgage companies say is that they'll do a loan modification, they'll reduce the principal. But it's extremely hard to get those. A lot of people are led down the path thinking they'll get them and the next day they're facing foreclosure. So what the companies claim to be doing and what they're actually doing are two different things.

SM: What would you advise at-risk consumers do?
HS: People have tendencies to put their heads in the sand and wait for a solution to come. But the sooner they deal with it, the better.... If people think they're going to have a problem, it's a good time to figure out what their options are.

If you need to stop foreclosure with bankruptcy, make sure you do your homework or and seek an experienced attorney to represent you.