A UNC Study shows that bankruptcy gives you a 70% better chance of permanently stopping the foreclosure of your home - allowing you to, well... keep it.
With the number of foreclosures across the country in the past several years having reached record levels, one interesting thing to note is that often, foreclosure could have been prevented with declaration of bankruptcy.
It’s the social stigma surrounding bankruptcy that has kept many home-owners from filing for it. Worse still, often such individuals did not even know they had the option. Because of predatory loans, the number of delinquent loans has been massive, but one new study undertaken by researchers has found that bankruptcy reduces the foreclosure likelihood by 70%.
bankruptcy reduces the foreclosure likelihood by 70%.
The report, titled ”Bankruptcy During Foreclosure: Home Preservation Through Chapters 7 and 13″, was published and released by researchers of UNC at Chapel Hill by the UNC Center for Community Capital. The study analyzed the relationship of actions which were undertaken by lenders and mortgage servicers which started foreclosure actions, as well as the associated state foreclosure and bankruptcy laws, as well as the actual foreclosure auctions, and finally the particular stage within the foreclosure proceedings.
Researchers picked apart data involving 4,280 lower-income borrowers who had home mortgages over 90 days past-due on mortgages which were fixed 30-year terms. Just 8% of borrowers in the study filed to receive bankruptcy protection, possibly because of “social stigma” the analysts and researchers wrote. Said Richard Weaver, a seasoned bankruptcy foreclosure prevention attorney, some clients are anxious to get into a chapter 13, thinking that it will solve all of their problems and stop foreclosure without their having to do much at all. These clients are missing the mark. But those clients who view chapter 13 bankruptcy as an important tool to help them keep their home are on the right track and are much more likely to succeed in keeping their home.
The research determined that delinquent borrowers who obtained Chapter 13 bankruptcy and Chapter 7 protection could immediately stop foreclosure actions and continue maintaining ownership of their home as they sought to resolve financial issues and delinquency problems. Because many home-owners enter foreclosure proceedings as a result of medical problems, unemployment, and underemployment, the chapter 13 bankruptcy provided specific relief that was well-suited to those who had experienced a temporary drop of their income. For those who were not able to resume their income, the bankruptcy was less effective.
Home-owners who obtained Ch. 13 bankruptcy, which specifically provides the opportunity for home-owners to keep their home while paying down secured debts over a period of 3-5 years, were a whopping 5 times more likely to retain and keep their home from being sold at foreclosure as opposed to those filing Ch. 7 bankruptcy. Chapter 7 relieves debts which are unsecured and does not provide a plan for repayment of provisions that involve home protection via debt repayment in a bankruptcy plan that gets the mortgage arrears caught up as is explained in the research.
The actual delays in the foreclosure auction which do eventually end up moving forward are usually a delay for a greater length of time in those states which allow foreclosure through what is known as POS or power of sale.This is opposed to the length of time for the delay in states which fall into
the category of judicial foreclosure, which allow the bank to use a law firm to
handle the foreclosure through a court supervised process as opposed to
requiring an actual lawsuit as is the case in power of sale states.
the category of judicial foreclosure, which allow the bank to use a law firm to
handle the foreclosure through a court supervised process as opposed to
requiring an actual lawsuit as is the case in power of sale states.
Additionally, an interesting note of the study was that the variation between mortgage servicers had extremely wide ranges of variation in how long it took that particular bank or servicer to bring the foreclosure action to fruition.
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It was aimed at getting the article more views. One thing that may be necessary to factor in here is the potential confusion over whether Pete's insights which apply to a US context can be applied in the UK from where Rory comes.
These comments have also been fantastic value on top of the article itself!.
@Rory Gilchrist @Pete Maughan