You are here:

Collections Law/Sign stipulation of settlement of file bankruptcy?

Advertisement

Expert: Creditwrench - 7/9/2010


Question
My ex-husband and I had a home in Florida that we had tried to sell while we were still married. We bought it at the peak of the market, which now means it is not valued anything near what we took a mortgage for.  We had an interest-only loan.  We took out a home equity line of credit right after moving in.  We are now divorced and neither of us live in the home. We have not made a payment on either the mortgage or the equity line for a year now. It has been on the market for close to 4 years.  We have had several short sale offers.  At least 3 of them rescinded due to the length of time to get an answer from both of our lenders (usually one is quick to respond and the other takes forever.)  There is currently an offer on the table but the second lender wants us to agree to a stipulation of settlement in order to release the record of lien.  (By the way, according to my credit report, the second lender charged off the debt 8 months ago but it is in collections.)  My question is, since my ex has ruined my credit by not making payments on joint accounts he was given responsibility for in our divorce papers, would I be better off letting the house be foreclosed on and then filing bankruptcy?

Answer

click here to enlarge
I'd say you should get rid of the home however you can. Apparently it is now nothing but a stone around your neck. But why on earth would you want to file bankruptcy when http://www.informalbankruptcy.com is so much better than formal bankruptcy? Formal bankruptcy makes absolutely no sense whatever in most cases and especially when you live in Florida where they can't grab the wages of the sole breadwinner in the family. Learn how to file informal bankruptcy and get rid of your worries, get your credit cleaned up and get paid for doing it.  

Creditwrench

Expertise

Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience

I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.