If you are a struggling homeowner and have not yet found relief, you should pay close attention on Thursday, June 26th. The U.S. Treasury Secretary, Jacob J. Lew, will be announcing expanded programs to help homeowners and renters. Help for homeowners to stay in their homes and help for renters to obtain home loans in order to purchase a home. These announcements come on the fifth anniversary of the government’s efforts to help the real estate market. Although we do not yet know the specifics, any adjustment or leniency may be enough to help you in your financial situation. The great news is that for all of those people who have not yet surrendered, there may be a glimmer of hope in terms + Click Here For Read More

Bankruptcy Relief Recently, I met with a man who was running a small business out of a storefront. Well it turned out that he was unable to survive at that current location. The problem was that he had a lease that expired five years into the future. So here he was with a business that was not making ends meet and yet he was still on the hook for a lease going out another five years. The first thought that he had was possibly filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy and eliminating the debt owed to the landlord. If he was able to do that, he could shut down the business, close the doors, file chapter 7 bankruptcy and get out of the debt in its entirety. He thought he was really onto something here. He + Click Here For Read More

Bankruptcy Avoidance Powers The chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee is the individual appointed by the Department of Justice to oversee the administration of your chapter 7 bankruptcy case. The trustee's main duty is to examine the debtor under oath in a section 341 meeting of creditors and determine whether or not there are any assets to be administered for the benefit of creditors. In most chapter 7 bankruptcy cases, there are no assets by which the trustee can administer. This is because the federal law, state of Illinois law and other state exemption laws provide debtors with the ability to protect or shield a specific amount of personal property while going through the bankruptcy process. + Click Here For Read More

People are understandable concerned about obtaining credit after filing for bankruptcy.  It is a real concern for many people.  We have become so used to credit and the leeway that it provides in making purchases.  The good news is that you will be able to obtain credit within a very short time after filing bankruptcy.  You can start with a secured card.  This is where you put a certain dollar amount on account at a bank and in exchange for that they give you charging privileges up to that amount. You can also try and purchase a vehicle shortly after filing. Although the interest rate may be higher than if you never file, you will be able to start getting positive reports to the three major + Click Here For Read More

If you have no assets and your sole income is Social Security, then you may not have to file chapter 7 bankruptcy. It really depends upon your level of stress and aggravation that you can handle. Creditors are going to attempt to collect on a debt until they realize that they have no means to actually collect on the debt. What I mean to say is this: if a creditor is seeking an outstanding debt of $15,000 due to a credit card charge, the creditor is going to pursue collection on that debt. The creditor may even file a lawsuit and obtain a judgment. The creditor then may seek what's known as post-judgment collection efforts. It is at this time that the creditor will first realize that there + Click Here For Read More

I am seeing any increase in potential bankruptcy clients who have parking tickets owed to the city of Chicago on their creditors list. It seems that it's hard to live in the city of Chicago and not be subject to the wrath of parking tickets. And when you don't pay those tickets on time, the dollar amounts double. Eventually, you can be subject to a boot on your vehicle as well as a suspension of your driver’s license. Chapter 13 bankruptcy will undo the suspension, take you off of the boot list, and allow you to repay a portion of your parking ticket debt over a three to five-year period. This debt for parking tickets which is non-dischargeable in a chapter 7 bankruptcy case, can be paid + Click Here For Read More

Most people are under the misconceptions that if they file for bankruptcy, then they will lose all of their property. This is simply not the case. Most people who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy retain all of their personal property. That is because the state of Illinois provides exemptions as it related to personal property. This means that a certain value of property is protected while going through the bankruptcy process. The transcript of the video below talks about the specific dollar amounts in greater detail Jesse Barrientes: Some people have bigger boxes, Dave, and some people have smaller ones. So what property then can I continue to keep in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy? Talk about a + Click Here For Read More

In the past, if you were behind on your mortgage payments and did not want to keep your home, you had the ability to surrender it without much concern. Everything changed however at the start of 2014. The mortgage debt forgiveness relief act was not extended into 2014. This means that if you surrender your home, you may be hit with a huge tax known as cancellation of debt or debt forgiveness. This amount has to be added to your taxable income in the upcoming year.   If you do a short sale, you will still be hit with a taxable event because of the cancellation of debt. In prior years, short selling a home was a way to avoid a mortgage deficiency as well as a taxable event due to + Click Here For Read More

In every Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, there is a Trustee appointment by the court to oversee the administration of your case. In most cases, there are no assets to be administered. However, the Trustee still needs to do an investigation to make certain. The investigation typically involves him asking several questions at the 341 meeting of creditors. The Trustee will also review the schedules to see if there is any item that needs further explanation. Provided there are no assets, the Trustee will quickly adjourn the meeting and move on to the next case. The narrative below talks about the Trustee's search for assets in greater detail. David Siegel: Why is the trustee engaging in a search for + Click Here For Read More