There’s a new scene up in the Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh recently. Judge Carlota Bohm is the judge assigned to the vast majority of Chapter 7 cases. She took the bench as a new judge about a year ago. Before she took the bench, judges rarely scheduled hearings when you wanted to sign a reaffirmation agreement. Now, we’ve got hearings, … Read More
An Update on How Long for a Mortgage Foreclosure in Pennsylvania
Back in 2010, I wrote about how long mortgage foreclosure takes in Pennsylvania. Again, here are the basics. In Pennsylvania, we have a judicial foreclosure system, which means that foreclosure cases must be filed in Court. Still, there are specific steps to follow: 1) Notice of Intention to Foreclose, which is a letter sent to the homeowner by the mortgage … Read More
How are Missed Chapter 13 Payments Made Up?
This is a frequent question, and it’s best understood by learning more about the concept of the “plan base”. Let’s say that your Chapter 13 plan is for 60 months and that the payment is $1,000 per month. Then your plan base is $60,000. Obviously, this is a total of all of your payments over the course of the plan. … Read More
Who’s the Guy Outside my House Taking Pictures?
I get this question a lot from clients who are either in foreclosure or mortgage default. Just who is this person with the camera in my front yard? The answer is that your mortgage company is permitted to inspect your home if you fall behind (the technical term is “to default”) on your mortgage loan. I’ll bet you that right … Read More
Treating Student Loan Claims in a Chapter 13 Plan
Given that so many people have student loan debts these days, I’ve been meaning to write something about this topical issue. And particularly, I wanted to write about how student loans are treated in Chapter 13 here in Western PA. Quickly, here’s a review: in Western Pennsylvania, we have a conduit trusteeship that requires secured loans to be repaid inside … Read More