Today’s Durham Bankruptcy Blog and Greensboro Bankruptcy Blog post discusses how you can surrender your secured property in a Greensboro Bankruptcy or Durham Bankruptcy. If you are looking to file a Durham Bankruptcy or Greensboro Bankruptcy and want to know what will happen to your house, car, boat, appliances, furniture, etc., you can contact one of our Durham Bankruptcy Attorneys or Greensboro Bankruptcy Attorneys for free. All you have to do is send an email to info@kregerthacker.com, call (888) 820-5885 or fill out the contact form to the right. A Durham Bankruptcy Attorney or Greensboro Bankruptcy Attorney will contact you the same day and answer your question free of charge.
If you file a Durham Chapter 7 Bankruptcy or Greensboro Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you have the option of surrendering or abandoning your secured property and then eliminate the debt that is attached to the property. A piece of property is secured if you pledged the property as collateral to a creditor in exchange for the creditor extending you credit. Common examples of secured property are houses, cars, boats, certain appliances, furniture, recreational vehicles, etc. For example, if you buy a car and finance the car through a financing company or bank, then the company or bank will likely use the car as collateral (making the car a piece of secured property) through what is called a security agreement.
You must include all of your secured property in your Greensboro Chapter 7 Bankruptcy or Durham Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition on Schedule A or Schedule B. You must also identify the secured debt and secured creditor on Schedule D. Additionally, you must include on Form 8 of the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition, the Individual Debtor’s Statement of Intention, what you plan to do with the secured property. One option is to surrender the property back to the creditor.
The creditor of the secured property will then have the opportunity to file a Motion requesting the Bankruptcy Court to allow the creditor to take the property without violating the automatic stay. Remember the automatic stay is an Order of the Bankruptcy Court that prevents your creditors from taking any collection activities against you, including foreclosures and repossessions. The creditor’s motion is called a Motion for Relief from Stay and so long as you don’t object to the creditor’s motion, the Bankruptcy Court will allow the creditor to proceed with the foreclosure of the real property or the repossession of personal property. This makes sense and is legally allowed because, as you indicated on your Individual Debtor’s Statement of Intention form in your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition, you no longer desire to keep the property.
After the Bankruptcy Court grants the creditor permission to either foreclose on the real property or repossess the personal property through an Order from Relief from Stay, your creditor will start to foreclose or repossess your property. A common question at this point is “how long will it be until I loose my property?” In the case of real property, such as your house, you will receive a notice of sale from your creditor of when your home will be sold. This process usually takes at least 30 days (but sometimes much longer) before you have to vacate your home. In the case of your personal property, such as a car, your creditor can come retrieve the car almost immediately.
If you have any questions about surrendering secured property in a Greensboro Chapter 7 Bankruptcy or Durham Chapter 7 Bankruptcy you can call one of our Greensboro Bankruptcy Attorneys or Durham Bankruptcy Attorneys at (888) 820-5885. You can also email our Durham NC Bankruptcy Attorneys and Greensboro NC Bankruptcy Attorneys at info@kregerthacker.com. All phone calls and emails will be answered the same day, free of charge by a Durham Bankruptcy Attorney or Greensboro Bankruptcy Attorney.
