Debt Reaffirmation after bankruptcy - What does it mean?

We filed chapter 7 last year and remember speaking with our lawyer about reaffirming on our home, however family members had become ill and we have been wanting to move closer to their home in order to care for them. We checked into selling our house or putting it on the market and we discussed how we wished we would have not told the lawyer we wanted to reaffirm on the house. I contacted a lawyer today about our options for selling the house and he asked if I had signed a reaffirmation agreement. I did not remember signing anything, only making verbal statements to the lawyer. The lawyer then advised me to check my credit report, and we discovered that the mortgage had been discharged with the bankruptcy last year and it was closed with 0$ balance. We put together the clues and it explains why we could no longer access our account or pay online, and we have been sending the mortgage company checks and not receiving statements. Does this mean we do not own the house anymore and are effectively "renting" from the mortgage company???

Welcome Steve,

It doesn't mean that you are renting the property. If you have reaffirmed the mortgage then the lender would have reported your payments to the credit bureaus. This would have had a positive affect on your credit report.

As the bankruptcy was not reaffirmed, this payments are not reported to the credit bureaus.

I am having the same problem with indymac, they say they didn't get an reaffirmation in our chapter 7 11/2007 now will not give us a modification they say go back to our lawyer and he says they were supposed to ask for it the time so we are stuck! Be ware Indymac are crooks and are being sold again .

Yes I can understand what you're going through. But the only option here is to fix an appointment with the lender and your attorney and get the issue resolved asap.

From talking to our attorney, he told us that if we can no longer afford the payments, then we have the option to walk out on the house and we cannot be held personally responsible for the loan amount as it was discharged, but they would foreclose on the house. Do you know if this foreclosure shows up on our credit or will it just remain listed with the $0 balance already on our credit report?

have you called the national foreclosure hotline or your state's foreclosure hotline (if there is one in your state)? indy mac is under fdic loss mitigation rules and a foreclosure counselor may help you -- the national foreclosure counseling is free, and many states have free assistance as well.

We are going through the same thing with IndyMac Re: Reaffirmation agreement. Our lawyer dropped the ball and even though we requested it be reaffirmed, did not report this. So, now we want a loan mod and they are telling us our mortgage needs to be reaffirmed, but we cannot reopen our bankruptcy case due to the judge denying it because of the time lapse. Any help, ,please!!!

I am going thru the same situation with IndyMac Bank, they are terrible I have requested the reafirmation agreement since May 6, 2009 still have not received and now my case has been dismissed, and I have been told in Ca anyway, the judge usually will not sign the reafirm agreement since they don't want you to keep the debt. What to do lose my house? What happened to the new laws that the Obahma signed into effect? Without a reafirmation they will not do a loan modification this is a real joke!!!!
Indymac shoulda be held accountable. please help

They ARE terrible. We have been TRYING to work with them almost a year now-Each time we would call we would get different answers. One rep would say no agreement was needed, so time would lapse, then you would call again and another rep would say Yes, you have to have one, and so on and so on. I even had my attorney in conference calls with such reps as they misinformed us and caused us to mis our window of opportunity. Of course, they do not take any blame. Because of escrow, etc. our mortgage has almost doubled since we initially received our loan and our income has decreased. Today a rep told me "make more money" Are you kidding me? If it was really that simple wouldn't we all simply "make more money"???? Help, Help, Help!!!

We filed chapter 7 in 7/2005. In the bankruptcy we signed a statement of intent to reaffirm our mortgage debt. It is 4 years later and we have been making our monthly mortgage payment. There have been late fees but we are current on the loan. Recently we had property damage and filed an insurance claim. When we tried to get the claim check endorsed the mortgage company found that they did not have a reaffirmation agreement on file. I thought we signed everything put in front of us but they admit that by the time they sent it (4 months after the bankruptcy was filed) the bankruptcy had been discharged. We never got a reaffirmation agreement, neither did our attorney or the court. The mortgage company is telling us that we need to sign a reaffirmation agreement now. We have no issue with signing a reaffirmation agreement but does this mean we have to reopen our bankruptcy to do this? Reopening the bankruptcy would mean us having to start the clock all over again and another $750-1000 in attorney cost and filing fees. All we want is to have our home repairs done. We don't mind even having the repairs monitored by the mortgage company as we have every intention on having the repairs done appropriately but I don't have the money involved to reopen the bankruptcy. Plus it seems ridiculous that we should have to do this considering at the very least it was the mortgage company that failed to act in a timely fashion to get this done before the discharge date.

Hi all, I am Military and make decent money but I owe way too much and although my payments are all up to date I am paying just over the minimum each month. I want to figure out a way to keep my vehicles and house but reconsolidate or relieve myself from my other debt. After paying everything each month I have maybe a Hundred dollars left. I am way over my head and want to figure out the best way possible to take care of this. Any advice? Thanks ceazer111@yahoo

My bankruptcy was discharged 2 years ago and I just found out that we never signed a reaffitmation of debt on our first mortgage but did on our 2nd mort and cars. My credit report shows my mortgage d/c'd and mortgage co says there is nothing I can do now. I cant get a straight answer on whether I am responsible for this mortgage any longer and what the implications of walking away from this home would be after I repay the 2nd mortgage. Will my credit report show foreclosure since it is already discharged? And how long would I be able to stay in home after I stop payments. (Payments made on time last 2yrs).

hi amyrn,

since you did not reaffirm the first mortgage and it has been discharged through bankruptcy, you are longer responsible for it. the foreclosure will not affect your credit scores because the debt has been discharged and the bankruptcy has already affected your credit negatively. the first lender has not foreclosed on your property because you have so far been current on your mortgage payments. but once you stop making payments, the lender will foreclose your house. the time period for which you can stay on your property depends on how fast the lender proceeds with the foreclosure.

hi rob,

if you have too much of debts and cannot save much money after paying towards the various debt obligations, you can look to consolidate your debts into a single monthly payment. this will help you reduce your monthly payments and you will be able to save more money. you can also file bankruptcy chapter 13 to reorganize your debts. but this should be your last option as filing bankruptcy will affect your credit scores negatively and will remain your credit report for about 7 years.

does reaffirmation of mortgage and loan modification mean the same and what is sthe difference

My bankruptcy has been discharged. I am still making payments on my Ford car and on my rv in which I live. I have not filed a reaffirmation on either debt. If I pay off the rv or the car do I still own them or does the debt collector treat this like a lease and they always own the property.