If you own your home, and are significantly behind in your mortgage payments, the company that owns your mortgage (the "mortgagee") may start legal proceedings to foreclose on your home.  The purpose of such a legal proceeding (known as a "foreclosure proceeding" or "foreclosure action") is for the mortgagee to acquire possession and ownership of your home, which is the collateral for the mortgage loan.  Of course, if your mortgagee succeeds in the foreclosure action, you will lose ownership and possession of your home.

If you have been served with legal papers starting such a foreclosure action against you, you have only a limited amount of time to take action to save your home.  If you were to file for bankruptcy, the Bankruptcy filing would automatically stop the foreclosure sale from taking place.  However, you must file for Bankruptcy before the scheduled date of the foreclosure sale.  If you wait until the date of the foreclosure sale, or afterwards, it will then be too late to stop the foreclosure sale and save your home.  If you are very close to the scheduled date of the foreclosure sale, we can file for Bankruptcy for you on an expedited basis, in what is known as an "emergency filing".  If you are in this situation, do not waste time.  

Of course, the above only addresses the limited purpose of stopping the foreclosure sale.  You still need to decide whether filing for Bankruptcy is the right solution for you, given your entire set of circumstances.  We can help you make that determination.  A Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, as explained elsewhere on this web site, will permit you to keep your home (and all of your other non-exempt property) while allowing you to repay your mortgage arrears over a three to five year period, generally with no interest accumulating on the arrears during the repayment period.  In certain limited circumstances, a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy can also be quite effective in a foreclosure scenario. 

It is also possible that your mortgagee, in lieu of moving forward with the foreclosure proceeding, may approach you regarding entering into a new repayment plan with them.  This would have the advantage of you not having to file for bankruptcy; however, this may not necessarily be a better alternative to filing for bankruptcy.  The reason for this is simple - your mortgagee, like all of your other creditors, are only interested in acquiring from you the largest percentage possible of what you owe them.   That is their only concern.  You, on the other hand, need to be concerned with all of your debts, in addition to being able to meet your month to month living expenses.

Although it may be tempting to take the "squeaky wheel" approach, and only deal with the particular creditor who is currently giving you difficulty - such as a mortgagee who has initiated a foreclosure proceeding - such an approach is generally not in your best long term interests.  Let's be honest - if you are having difficulty paying your debts, all of your creditors, at one point or another, will become "squeaky wheels".  Bankruptcy offers a global solution, in that it addresses all of your debts.  We can help you determine if it is the right solution for you.