Mortgage sold AFTER bankruptcy, now trying to collect...

[DDQueen]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

Filed a chapter 7, unfortunately, in June 2009. Automatic stay lifted as to mortgage loan holder to proceed to foreclose; mortgage loan holder hired attorneys to handle surrender and foreclosure and they entered their appearance in bankruptcy proceeding. Home surrendered in bankruptcy petition. Discharge granted 09-28-09.

Filing bankruptcy was a last option for myself and my husband. We had previously lived in Michigan and my husband was in and out of work due to layoffs and extremely high unemployment. He was offered a job in Texas and we had to move in January 2009. Left home in Michigan up for sale but it did not sell and was worth far less than it had been two years before. We were unable to sell our home in time to move for the new job (8 months unemployed prior to move).

We had tried to keep up, tried to have our loan modified when my husband was first unemployed last September and got nowhere. We got papers from 6 different companies saying they were acting on behalf of the original loan holder, sent reams of financial information as requested and could not get a response from anyone or figure out who we really were supposed to be dealing with.

We were unable to pay both for a home and an apartment and got way behind no matter how hard we tried to keep up.

We had even refinanced 4 years ago, spending every penny we had in savings, to position ourselves better and have a fixed 30 year loan that reflected the actual value of the home at the time and do the right thing but over 2 years of unemployment on and off did not help.

Received papers the other day from a company stating they were the new loan holder and we owed $18,000+ dollars, to call them to arrange payment immediately.

Sent copies of documents to our bankruptcy attorney as we felt this was a violation of the bankruptcy as well as of the subsequent discharge: The loan was sold to another company AFTER the petition was filed, AFTER attorneys had entered their appearance on behalf of the original loan holder and then; AFTER the discharge was granted, this new company proceeded to try to collect the debt when all previous parties involved in the original loan were well aware of what was going on.

We are looking for a second opinion as our bankruptcy attorney seems to think there is nothing wrong with this new action or that they violated anything and maybe she's right! We just don't know.

This company threatening us and basically making an extremely stressful and sad situation even worse did not help.

Is this a violation of the bankruptcy proceeding / discharge or not?

Thank you for any assistance.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[bigun]

If, you did not sign a reaffirmation agreement, this is a violation of the bk code to try and collect post discharge.
Were I you, I'd contact my lawyer and demand an explanation as to why this is not a violation of the permanent injunction against further collection activity.

There is nothing illegal with discharged bk debt being sold. A few firms specalize in the pratice.

[url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_46/b4058001.htm]Prisoners of Debt[/url]

[DDQueen]

Much as we would have liked to have been able to sign a reaffirmation agreement on the mortgage loan and possibly keep our home, we DID NOT sign one. (We did sign one for our car but that was the only reaffirmed debt.)

What's the point in selling OR buying discharged debt if one is precluded from collecting on it due to it being a debt discharged in bankruptcy and, therefore, illegal to try to collect post discharge?

Altho'... I have read about some companies doing this - buying up discharged debts and continuing to try to collect and I don't really get it. Maybe it's lucrative for them if people get scared or are threatened, as we were, to pay up on a debt that was discharged but why would this be legal??

If it's a violation to collect post discharge, then it seems contrary at the very least to buy discharged debt when one is not supposed to able to collect on it.

[DDQueen]

(P.S. Tried to follow your link but got a not found error... )

[DDQueen]

Remembered some more info...

There is no valid excuse I can find for this new collection action being undertaken on this discharged debt. We have had the displeasure of checking our credit reports after the discharge came thru - obviously, unpleasant since our credit now stinks - and the mortgage loan account clearly shows the debt was discharged in the bankruptcy.

So someone buying up this discharged debt and trying to collect would seem to NOT have the excuse that they didn't know any better - if one can assume they have access to PACER to check bankruptcy records and, two, they undoubtedly have access to check our credit reports as well which show the discharge of this debt.

I think it's fairly obvious I'm trying to determine if not only the discharge was violated but also the Fair Debt Collection Act as well. And, if so, should the Court issue sanctions or something?