QUESTION
Need help with Landlord and Bankruptcy issue
Asked on Aug 15th, 2014 on Bankruptcy - Florida
More details to this question:
My husband and I recently filed for chapter 7, and we were told that under the automatic stay that our landlord could not try to get rent from us or evict us without permission from the clerk of the Bankruptcy court. Well, he's trying to do it anyway and we don't have an appointment with a lawyer until two weeks from now. He has given us two 3-day notices in less than 48 hours, both with different amounts, and he is going to go file for eviction when the notice is up next week. What do we take to the clerk of courts for our county to prove we have an automatic stay in place and stop this until he gets permission from the Bankruptcy Court to actually file for an eviction?
1 ANSWER
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The automatic stay of a chapter 7 bankruptcy will protect you from being evicted as long as your landlord did not obtain a judgment for the possession of the property prior to filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you bring your bankruptcy filing notice to the court, explained to them that there is a chapter 7 bankruptcy (the automatic stay protects you from any eviction proceedings that shall be all you need. It sounds to me like you may have tried to do this yourself without the use of an attorney, an attorney should have put your landlord on your bankruptcy petition which would've given him notice of the bankruptcy. Your landlord may go to bankruptcy court and file a motion called a relief from stay, which basically remove the automatic stay to allow him to evict you. The vast majority the time the courts will allow these motions and you will be forced to leave. The chapter 7 bankruptcy does offer you some protection, but as you continue to acquire debt after that date you file the bankruptcy, the court does not protect of those future debts and will take that into account in allow your landlord the relief from stay to evict you.
I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where my firm is located. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options.
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Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO LAW GROUP Attorneys At Law http://fallriverbankruptcyattorney.com/ 901 Eastern Ave. Unit 2 Fall River, MA 02723 Office: 888-269-0688 FAX: 877-475-8147
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Answered on Aug 19th, 2014 at 8:37 AM