St. Petersburg Bankruptcy Lawyer Can Help You Prevent Foreclosure
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If you are facing foreclosure in Tampa Bay or surrounding areas in Pinellas County and you have run out of options, then your best chance to prevent foreclosure is by filing for bankruptcy. You will require the services of an experienced St. Petersburg bankruptcy lawyer for this. Not all lawyers in St. Petersburg can assist you with bankruptcy. You will require the assistance of attorneys who concentrate on bankruptcy. Once a debt is discharged in bankruptcy, it can no longer be enforced against you.

Filing for a Florida Bankruptcy

An experienced St. Petersburg bankruptcy lawyer will review your circumstances and advise you on the right chapter to file. Generally individual debtors file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Chapter 7 is often referred to as liquidation. When you file a Chapter 7 petition, the bankruptcy court will appoint a bankruptcy trustee who will take over all your non-exempt assets and sell them to pay off your creditors; however, most of your debt will be exempt and protected. Based on your circumstances a certain amount of equity in your home may be exempt. Chapter 13 is often called the wage earner's plan. Chapter 13 involves the payment of the debts according to a repayment plan. If your mortgage is included in the repayment plan, you will be able to retain your home.

The bankruptcy petition must be accompanied with the following schedules:

• Details of all your debts
• Details of your income
• List of your assets
• Details of your monthly living expenses including food, housing, clothing, taxes, utilities, medicine, transportation, medicine, etc.

Your bankruptcy petition must be properly prepared and filed in the bankruptcy court. Even a small mistake can cause the petition to be dismissed. This will defeat the very purpose of filing. An experienced St. Petersburg bankruptcy lawyer knows how to prepare and file the bankruptcy petition. The lawyer will generally provide you with a standard question and answer form. Once you complete the form and return it, the attorney will prepare the petition based on your answers.

Immediately upon filing of the bankruptcy petition a stay will come into operation by law. This stay will prevent your creditors from taking further steps to collect the debt or contacting you. This means that your lender cannot take any further steps to foreclose on your home once you file for bankruptcy. Generally if you want to save your home from foreclosure, an experienced Florida bankruptcy attorney will advise you to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy. You must have a regular source of income for Chapter 13 filing as it involves making regular payments under a repayment plan. The repayment plan must be approved by the bankruptcy court. You must make the payments according to the plan to the bankruptcy trustee. The bankruptcy trustee will distribute the payments to the creditors.

Credit Score

While bankruptcy can help stop or delay foreclosure, it will have an impact on your credit score. Generally bankruptcy will reduce your credit score by 160 to 220 FICO points. So a person with a credit score of 600 before filing will see his or her credit score being reduced to 380 to 440 FICO points. However, an experienced St. Petersburg or Clearwater bankruptcy attorney will tell you that it is not as bad as you think it to be. Generally by the time you file for bankruptcy your credit score would have reduced by 100 FICO points as most creditors would have reported your defaults. Filing for bankruptcy will not make it worse.

Bankruptcy can have a positive effect on your credit score. When you come out of bankruptcy, the credit bureaus while determining your credit will compare you with others who are in a similar financial state - other bankruptcy filers. You will not be compared with person with excellent or good credit. If you are lucky, your credit score might even increase after bankruptcy. Once a debt is discharged in bankruptcy, the balance of the debt will appear as zero on your credit report. Foreclosure will also affect your credit likewise but it will not discharge your other debts.

Foreclosure process in Florida starts when you default on your monthly mortgage payments. Your lender will send you a letter informing you of your default and ask you to correct the default. If you do not correct the default and continue to default on the next month's payments, the lender will send you a notice of intent to foreclosure and ask you to pay the default amount within a specified period. If you still fail to pay the amount, then the lender will take steps to foreclose your home. The lender will take possession of your home and sell it by public auction to recover its dues. It can be frightening. However an experienced St. Petersburg bankruptcy lawyer can stop the foreclosure by filing for bankruptcy if you are located in the Tampa area.

Filed under: St. Petersburg Bankruptcy Lawyer

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