Articles Posted in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

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Great news for Florida consumers with student loans! On April 21, 2015, the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, Bankruptcy Court issued a ruling on behalf of our client that a National Collegiate Student Loan Trust would be barred from pursuing student loans in Florida because the five year statute of limitations had expired. In doing so, the Court entered Final Judgment in favor of our client.

However, NCSLT apparently did not like this ruling and has subsequently filed an appeal. As neither party has submitted briefs yet, the outcome of the appeal remains unknown and should be resolved in approximately 4-6 months or less.

These clients owe a devastating $161,000 in private student loans. They also owe only about $20,000 in federal loans for which payments are current in a repayment program. However, prior to hiring us, these clients were not presented with realistic payment terms from the private lender. The household income for this family of four is only $40,000 as they have two young children and the wife stays at home to care for them.

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student loan reform.jpgToday, a legislator introduced a bill to treat student loan debt as other unsecured debt in a bankruptcy filing. This would be huge! As everyone knows, a bill isn’t a law and it could be awhile, but if this gains steam, we may have some relief for graduates over the past 20 years who are facing student loans that the new governmental forgiveness programs don’t cover.

Rep. John K. Delaney, D-Md., introduced the Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy Act (H.R. 449) on January 22, 2015. The bill itself can be found here. This link can also be used to track its progress through the House, Senate and finally the President if it makes it through. I just checked the link and the text of the bill isn’t up yet, but it should be in a couple days. I’ll be curious to see how it is worded and other legal commentators’ opinions of its likelihood of passage.

Presently, the burden to discharge student loans is not easy. The Brunner standard of what it takes to show an undue hardship is very difficult to meet. However, this 1987 case is starting to come under fire because of the impossible standards imposed. Over the past year, there have been approximately a dozen federal cases providing a framework for a new standard allowing for discharge of student loan debt. Brunner has some competition now.

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door shut.jpgAs a Florida consumer bankruptcy attorney, we have been able to remove and strip off second mortgages due to the 11th Circuit’s decision in McNeal a couple years back. It is the only Circuit in the country that allows for a second mortgage lien to be stripped from homestead property. The key has been to show that the home does not have value over and above the amount owed on the first mortgage.

Bank of America, N.A. has an appeal in the works that the U.S. Supreme Court has just accepted for review per DS News.

So the window may be closing. Anyone who wants to strip their second mortgage on their home should contact a bankruptcy attorney right away — in case the court starts staying cases pending the appellate review, or in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court rules against homeowners.

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I don’t know if this is occurring to our Florida bankruptcy clients, but I imagine it is. The ABI

I have a warning for you about scam bill collectors. Criminal gangs are posing as law enforcement officials. They are calling people and emailing phony threats to collect on fake debts that you do not owe. They pose as bill collectors. But they’re not. They’re thieves. During the past 2 weeks, one attorney colleague has heard from at least five former clients who got these calls. The description is always the same. The caller will identify himself as a government official. The caller will proceed to tell you that they have a warrant for your arrest for bank fraud. You will be given an opportunity to pay an immediate cash settlement to avoid being arrested. These callers are thieves. They work out of telephone boiler rooms. Most are probably overseas, where they hide and avoid detection. The callers usually have a heavy foreign accent.

How Scam Bill Collectors Target You.

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house.JPGThe Affordable Care Act has caused millions of people to sign up for Medicaid for the first time. Medicaid is a program of free health insurance provided to low to no income individuals. Although the care itself is free, there is a lien against estate assets for any Medicaid payments made for any individual who received benefits after he or she reaches 55 years of age. This includes a lien against their home.

In some states, a Medicaid lien will result in the loss of a homestead to the government. This is one of those unintended consequences we hear about. However, in Florida, we do not have to worry about a Medicaid recipient’s house being taken. This is because of the Florida homestead laws.

For additional questions and consultation on debt related issues, please consider contacting Arkovich Law

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bofa.jpgBank of America simply cannot get it right. Our Tampa, Florida law firm sees violations regularly whether it involves foreclosure or bankruptcy. Of particular note these violations are all one way and they put money in BofA’s pocket. If they were truly errors, wouldn’t they immediately be corrected once pointed out and wouldn’t the errors go both ways?

Just last week, the Center for Investigative Reporting issued a lengthy case study on yet another botched foreclosure in California by Bank of America.

This is not a one time event I assure you. It extends from coast to coast.

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question.jpgAt the end of February 2013, the Middle District, Tampa Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court announced an amended Uniform Chapter 13 Plan would have a new choice for debtors. Debtors can now choose whether they want property of the estate to vest in the Debtor’s name upon confirmation of the plan, or they can choose to wait until discharge or dismissal.

Ok, so what does this really mean? I would easily bet that most debtors do not know what option is best for them in their particular situtation. I imagine that the volume bankruptcy mills don’t care even if they do know. After all I get several emails/calls a month from debtors who hired a mill who got things wrong or won’t return phone calls. They’ve been forced to google for the answer and came up with my blogs. Sorry, you get what you pay for, but that’s another story for another day.We refer to this quandry about vesting as a Section 1306 vs.1327 question. Under Section 1306, vesting occurs at the discharge. Under Section 1327, it occurs much earlier at confirmation of the plan. An Eleventh Circuit case from July 2000, Telfair v. First Union Mortgage Corp., 216 F.3d 1333 (11th Cir. 2000) pointed out a perfect example of why a bankrupt debtor may want to leave jurisdiction over property with the bankruptcy court until discharge. In that case, the mortgage company began to apply post-petition mortgage payments to its attorney’s fees and costs of curing a default after confirmation. First Union forceplaced insurance not with the prior insurance company used by the debtor, but rather with its own subsidiary at considerable additional expense and hefty fees to First Union. No approval of the bankruptcy court was needed since the plan had allowed the property to re-vest with the debtor. As the debtor owed less on the the property than what was owed, this was a pretty sneaky way to relieve the debtor of years of built up equity.

As a consumer advocate and Max Gardner bootcamper, we highly recommend that Debtors take advantage of the protections afforded by the bankruptcy court and choose to vest property to the debtor at the time of discharge or dismissal (the end of the case) and not the far earlier date of confirmation which occurs very early in the case.

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courthouse.jpgUnder Florida law, a creditor has up to twenty years to try and collect a judgment. That’s an intimidating number, two whole decades. Something not to take lightly. To become a lien on real estate, a certified copy of a final judgment must be recorded in the public records in the county in which the real property is located.

Once recorded, Florida law provides that the judgment acts as a lien on non-homestead real property for an initial period of ten years. See Florida Statute Section 55.10. The judgment can be re-recorded and act as a lien for an additional ten years. Prior to 2004, a recorded judgment acted as a lien for only seven years, but could be re-recorded up to two additional times for a total of twenty years.

In comparison, a bankruptcy remains on someone’s credit report for 10 years. However, the last 18 months is the most important time period in anyone’s credit history and often the bankruptcy after it gets old enough is considered irrelevant.

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house shopping cart.jpgIt will take less time than you think to qualify to buy a home after bankruptcy. I generally advise my Florida clients that they will likely qualify within 2-5 years.

Where do these numbers come from exactly? FHA and HUD regulations are readily available online.

If you have filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, HUD Guideline 4155.1 : 4.C.2.g provides: A Chapter 7 bankruptcy does not disqualify a borrower from obtaining an FHA-insured mortgage if at least two years have elapsed since the date of the discharge of the bankruptcy.

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car title.jpg This debtor in South Florida recently lost his free and clear car in bankruptcy (actually the debtor was allowed to pay for the one-half interest in a Chapter 13 so it wasn’t quite as bad as it initially appears). Joint ownership is getting murkier and legal advise is definitely needed to preserve vehicles, money in bank accounts and even real property. Other bankruptcy cases in South Florida have recently attacked the “bare legal title” concept. These situations often arise when debtors share bank accounts, vehicles or even real property with parents, children or other relatives. Generally, we can show that the debtor held bare legal title only for probate or other purposes and the property is not subject to turnover by the bankruptcy court. However, the law in this area is getting rather murky. The facts in this case were as follows: a vehicle purchased by a debtor’s mother, but titled in the name of the debtor and his mother, and the debtor paid the insurance and maintenance. In re Fletcher, 2012 WL 2062394 (Bankr. S.D. Fla., March 6, 2012).

Under Florida law, when a person’s name appears on title to property, a rebuttable presumption arises in bankruptcy that the person has a beneficial interest in the property, although that interest may be an equal interest or a factional share. The burden then shifts to the debtor to prove by competent, clear, and compelling evidence she does not hold a beneficial interest in the property. In re Kirk, 381 B.R. 800 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2007).

Thus, here, although the debtor’s mother supplied the funds to purchase a motor vehicle, the debtor held a beneficial interest in the vehicle, and the vehicle was subject to turnover to the Chapter 7 trustee, where the vehicle was titled in the name of the debtor and the debtor’s mother, and the debtor paid for the insurance on, and the maintenance of, the vehicle.

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