Why is a company contacting me about a house I filed bankruptcy on in 2012?

Surrendering real property in a bankruptcy does not effectuate legal transfer of ownership. Legal ownership does not transfer until some other legal action takes place, such as a foreclosure or a sale. A bankruptcy merely resolves your liability under the note associated with the mortgage. The mortgage, or legal instrument that makes the debt secured by the property, remains intact after the bankruptcy discharge. To get the home out of your name, you may want to sell the property or work with the current lien holder to do something like short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure. If you do a short sale, the personal liability associated with mortgage/note should have been discharged by your bankruptcy, so you should not have to worry about the lien holder pursuing you for any any deficiency. I would recommend consulting with an attorney to ensure that the debt was discharged and to assist you in any document review if you are working with the lien holder.

Most important: find a new lawyer. Since almost everything in a BR case is now available to lawyers through the federal courts database ('PACER'), he or she can get most of what s/he needs. Also it is not hard to check real estate records in most counties. Why should you think you no longer have record title to the house? If it was foreclosed, then you lost it. If you deeded it to the lender or to some other entity, you no longer own it. But otherwise.... If you listed the mortgage note in your BR, as you should have done, then the underlying debt is discharged, even if the mortgage still remains. The creditor apparently wants to sell the house on a short sale AND, HOPEFULLY, NOT TRY TO CHARGE YOU FOR ANY DEFICIENCY. If that is the case, you lose nothing by cooperating with that creditor, and you likely save yourself some bother in the future.

A discharge in Bankruptcy has a specific meaning. Discharge of a particular debt means that the debt can no longer be collected. Some debts are dischargeable, some are not, some are dischargeable only under certain conditions and/or with extra steps in the bankruptcy process. A review of what is and isn't dischargeable is something that the attorney does BEFORE filing the case so that the client understands the risks and benefits of each type of bankruptcy and can decide which type of bankruptcy to file and when in order to get maximum benefit. Only HOA fees incurred prior to the bankruptcy are discharged in a bankruptcy case. HOA fees incurred after the bankruptcy filing up to the date of foreclosure remain the homeowner's responsibility. While the obligation to make the payments under the mortgage promissory note is discharged, the deed of trust that the lender holds on the property is not eliminated in Bankruptcy (with some exceptions that I assume did not apply to your situation and in any case because I assume a chapter 7 type of bankruptcy was filed). Whether a foreclosure happens during or after the bankruptcy filing is another matter and the bankruptcy court does not get involved in that process unless the foreclosure is done while the bankruptcy case remains open and in that situation only to the extent that the lender must first obtain court's permission to move forward. Rarely do lenders proceed with foreclosure process while the case is pending because of the added steps and expenses. Typically, the lender will wait until the bankruptcy case closes and proceed at some point in time after that. As far as I know, there is no legal mechanism by which you can force a lender to foreclose and take ownership of the property at any particular time, although some borrowers have taken steps such as letting the lender know that the property is vacant and/or delivering keys to try and convince the lender that taking over the ownership sooner rather than later is in their best interest. Some debtors chose to either continue living at the property paying HOA fees until a Deed of Trust sale date is scheduled and moving out just before that happened or right after or they moved out of the property and rented it out to cover the HOA fees. Whether you retained ownership can be verified by looking at the county recording documents.. When certain property's value was greatly below the principal balance on the note, it was not uncommon for a lender to adapt a wait and see attitude. In doing so they wished to prevent taking an immediate loss and hoping values would increase at some point to recoup more from the property or an alternative or temporary payment arrangement could be made with the debtor through a loan modification. A short sale, if approved, could potentially take care of the HOA fees. You can apply for a short sale and carefully review the terms of the agreement under which the bank is willing to proceed and discuss any tax implications of a short sale with your tax preparer.

You may have surrendered the house during your bankruptcy, as your question suggests, but that doesn't mean that the lender foreclosed on the property. Until they do, the property shall remain in your name.

There are two parts to a mortgage, one is your personal promise to pay the debt and the other is a lien on the real estate. The bankruptcy eliminated the personal promise to pay the debt but the lien wasn't affected. You own the home because your name is on the deed, your name will remain on the deed until you transfer the property to someone else or the lender forecloses. Filing bankruptcy didn't take your name off the deed. There is some liabilities connected to being the owner of a vacant house: 1. Often, you're liable if a neighborhood kid goes in the house and gets hurt. You might even be charged with a crime for owning a dangerous nuisance in a residential area. 2. As you know, you're liable for the homeowner's association. 3. Your required to maintain the property and cut the grass. If you don't the city can take you to court and, in some states, this can also be a criminal offense. 4. If you don't keep insurance on the house, you might to liable to the lender for damage to his collateral or to the neighbors if, say, a fire spreads from the vacant house to theirs. So, doing a short sale is a very good idea. I would advise you to work with the new holder of the mortgage on this.

Since you still own this property, if you get no benefit from the ownership, you may want to take active steps to deal with this issue. Although you don?t personally owe the mortgage debt, the house does owe the mortgage debt. The lender can still foreclose on the house in order to get paid. While a foreclosure may not show up on your consumer credit report, it will be part of your credit history that every mortgage lender will be aware of and can prevent you from obtaining a new mortgage. So do you want to leave things alone or make a little effort to make a little money and sell this house?

The bankruptcy did not alter the legal status of the home it merely eliminated personal responsibility for the mortgage and the HOA dues accrued prior to the filing. You are liable for the HOA dues after the filing until the property changes legal title via short sale or foreclosure. That is why I advise clients to get rid of the home BEFORE filing the BK.

When a bankruptcy is filed, that discharge only discharges the debt amount for you personally. You are no longer responsible for the payment of the amount due. When there is a security interest taken by the lender in an item such as a home, the Lender would have to file a foreclosure action to request the court allow the real estate to stand good for the debt, and for the Master Commissioner to sell it at auction. Once that process is complete, a deed is transferred to the successful bidder at auction. Filing bankruptcy does not automatically dispose of the property which appears of record in your name. The real estate is still owned by you - if the lender chose not to foreclose and have the property sold - you still own it, subject to the mortgage lien. You have a right to list it with a realtor, or sell it yourself and get the best price - if the owner of the Debt is willing to work with you to accomplish this, it is a good way to get rid of the property and away from any potential loss which may occur from someone getting injured on the property. This is a complex issue and you should seek competent counsel to help guide you through the process.

The house is still in your name until the bank takes action, whether through foreclosure or short sale. The bank is correct that you won't be liable for any deficiency. They want to do a short sale to limit their own loss. Whether you cooperate or not is up to you, but if you want to get rid of the property (and all the HOA dues and property taxes that go along with it), you should go ahead with the short sale.

Your situation is all too common in our mixed-up housing market today. As you have discovered, filing bankruptcy by itself does not get the property out of your name or relieve you of the obligation to pay ongoing HOA dues (and perhaps other ongoing costs related to the property.) It discharges your personal obligation to pay the mortgage and arrearage on HOA dues owed on the date you filed for bankruptcy. Your best course of action would be to cooperate with BSI Financial and make sure you resolve any outstanding HOA dues. It might be possible to pay the HOA dues from the proceeds of the short sale, but that would require BSI Financial's cooperation. It is unfortunate that your former bankruptcy lawyer did not make these things clear, but you probably would have been required to pay more attorney fees to assist you in getting the property out of your name. The typical retainer agreement in a bankruptcy only promises a discharge of your debts.