What does a discharge mean for a mortgage, do we still have to pay the mortgage and why does the mortgage company do?

A discharge of a mortgage only occurs in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This discharge means that although the lender can still foreclose, the lender cannot sue you to collect the underlying debt. So if you want to keep the property, you gotta pay the mortgage, as bankruptcy obviously will not get you a free house. But if you filed Chapter 13, the discharge did not include your mortgage.

Your question demonstrates how valuable a lawyer can be. It's almost always worth the investment. When you closed on your mortgage, you signed many papers. Two of them are (1) The mortgage itself, and (2) the mortgage note. The mortgage is the grant of a security interest in the property to the lender who is providing you the money to help buy the property, and the mortgage note is a separate document in which you promise to pay the amount you are borrowing, usually in monthly payments with a stated interest rate. Bankruptcy discharges your personal obligation on the mortgage note. With the rarest exceptions, it does not affect the mortgage-that is, the lender's security interest in the real estate. If you want to keep the real estate, you must (continue to) pay for it. You can do by signing a formal reaffirmation of the mortgage debt, which has its own benefits and costs, or you can just keep on paying the mortgage, and if you are current in your payments (including real estate tax and insurance) the lender in most parts of the country may not kick you out. And when you have made all the payments, they still have to give you clear title by 'satisfying' the mortgage on the real estate records. A reaffirmation must be filed with the Court before a discharge is granted. The benefit of a reaffirmation is that your payments are reported to the credit reporting bureaus, so timely payment helps your credit score. BUT, if you should fall behind, you will owe the total balance of the mortgage note. If you do not reaffirm, the lender will generally not report your payments to the credit bureaus (because they are not allowed to try to collect from you or make an adverse report to the credit bureaus if you have not reaffirmed the debt).

Secured debts like a mortgage are not discharged in BK, merely your personal responsibility to pay. If you want the house, you must pay.

The Debtor's obligation to repay the mortgage company is discharged in a BK filing. However, if you want to keep the home, just keep making the mortgage payments. Of course, you have the option to just walk away from the home. Debtor's choice.

Discharge means that you are no longer personally liable on the mortgage but the lender still has a lien on your home and can foreclose if you don't make the payments.