What will I lose if I can't make my mortgage payment? Beside the house Can they go after my personal belonging

Question

I bought a house about 2 years ago at the height of the housing boom =( Recently I took out a home equity line of credit so now I have 2 mortgage payments to pay. I just lost my job and found another but the pay is a lot less. I don’t think I can continue making my mortgage payments. If I decided to quit and stop making payment, what will I lose? Beside the house and bad credit, can the mortgage company go after my personal belongings or dig into my bank accounts? Thanks!

I'm in Southern California. My first mortgage and home equity line are both with the same mortgage company.

I've put the house up for sales since February of this year. I've since lower my asking price twice. It's currently 10% below the mortgage company's recently aprised price and still no luck =(

Answer 1

Yes they can. After you stop paying your mortage for 3 months, you go into defualt. In default, the mortage company with the courts permission, serves you notice, and puts your home up for auction.
Whoever wins the auction is the new home owner. If no one wins the auction then the bank repossess the home. Anywhich case, you are liable for the difference between the auction price, and the mortage. The bank will most likely sue you, especially if you have assests in your name.

Answer 2

Per California anti-deficiency provisions and other states like it, a non-recourse loan/s is a loan/s secured by and used to PURCHASE an owner-occupied residential property (1-4units). Therefore the 2nd lender may go after your assets because it is a recourse loan.

Disclosure: I am not an attorney and you should get legal counsel from an attorney.

My advice to you if you decide to do a short sale or let the bank foreclose on you is the following:

When a property is lost through foreclosure or sold as a short sale the lender or lenders will take a loss.

This loss occurs because on a short sale the property is sold for a value lower than what is owed currently to the lender. Same occurs in a foreclosure if the property is sold on a foreclosure proceeding at a value lower than what is currently owed to the lender.

Therefore, this loss (sales expenses, accrued interest, fees, etc) is taken by the lender as YOUR gain and by law the lender has to report this to the IRS by filling a 1099c form.

This form will have to be included in your regular income tax form you file for that year.

For example: If you make $70000/year and the loss taken by the lender amounts to $100,000 you could be liable to pay income taxes on a total income of $170,000.

BUT there are ways to avoid this tax burden if you are financially insolvent. Read my article "Homeowner's guide Short Sale/Foreclosure" to read all about this tax consequence. In this same article you will find the link to the IRS page where it explains how you can qualify to avoid paying this tax.

Disclaimer: I am not a tax advisor therefore you need to consult with a knowleadgeable CPA that can give you tax advice

Answer 3

The house is the collateral and that is what they will come after but WAIT!!! Call your bank and explain to them your situation, banks are willing to work with you in this market, they don't want to take back 15% of the homes they hold notes for.. There are several options for you to avoid foreclosure and 10 years of waiting to buy a new home. Countrywide is going to restructure some $80 billion worth of loans for people trying to save their homes lowering payments and working with their clients to get through this. One way if you cannot possibly continue to make payments is to do a "short sale". The biggest downside to this is that you will be 1099 on the difference. For example if you bought a home and still owe $500,000 on the loan but in this market can only get someone to pay $420,000, the bank may accept the offer and now your responsibility will be taxes on the $80,000 difference. But the first hting I would do is contact your lender(s) and try and work out a new deal, it might work. Good Luck.

Answer 4

It depends. Your original loan is secured by the house. If you quit paying the payment the bank gets to take the house.

It's the equity line that you have to worry about. It can be secured by the house, or be an unsecured loan. If it's unsecured, then they can get a judgement and garnish your wages, or take money from an account. They cannot take your posessions but that will take some time.

If both the 1st mortgage and home equity line are secured by the home and you stop making payments, when the first note holder forecloses it will wipe out the 2nd lein.

You would be a lot better off calling the 2nd lein holder and discussing your options with the LOSS MITIGATION department. Their job is to help the bank not loose money. Do not speak with customer service or collections, etc. Their job is to get you to pay.

There are options such as forebarence, loan modification, as well as repayment plans that can assist you. However, they won't sugest one if they don't know you need one. If you can afford it you should get advice from an attorney or financial professional. Look and see if there are any free community services.

Call sooner than later.

Answer 5

You will receive phone calls from the mortgage company to start with. You may receive mail in regards to organizations that can help you with this problem. Eventually you will receive a letter advising that you have a certain amount of time to bring the payments up to date or they will begin foreclosure proceedings.

Sometimes it's better to try to find a buyer for your home. I would talk with the mortgage company and see if there was something you could work out. Sometimes a lawyer and advise you of a way to declare 'bankruptcy' and save your home in the process.

There are so many if's and and's, do's and don'ts that it's hard to keep up with.

I wish you the best. No one who tries hard deserves to lose their home.

Answer 6

How much they can go after depends on what state you live in. Because you took cash out by getting a HELOC, in most, if not all, states they can hold you responsible for the difference between what you owe and what they get for it at auction. If I were you I'd try to deal with the lender. A job loss can be considered a catastrophic event and they might look favorably on restructuring your loans so you can afford to keep the house. Lenders are under a lot of pressure these days to help borrowers avoid foreclosure- take advantage of the political climate and try to save you home. Good luck!

Answer 7

NO not on the personal belongings, No on the personal bank account unless the bank is the same as the Mortgage holder.

Sell the house, oh, wait you did the second mortgage thing..

File Chapter 7 and get a cute Apt, until you can move away from where you are and start a new life in a small town somewhere...
http://www.portlandground.com/

Answer 8

So sorry to hear about your hardships. Many Americans are trying to endure too. The only thing they can take is the house. BUT , it also takes away your Credit rating. Your ability to borrow money will be at ground zero. The second mortgage will hurt your access to borrow money. The Mortgage Company , already knows about your banking accounts. And if you have expensive assets like jewelery, antiques and etc., they can force an Auction and Auction all of your valuables. Including your cars. Good Luck. Work hard to avoid this.

Answer 9

Your lender can file a lawsuit for all the money you owe on a property. If you owe 100k and you give the house back to your lender. FEDERAL RULE is the IRS will expect you to pay taxes on that 100k because it was considered a profit to you because you never paid back your lender. Lender will get the house back and file a lawsuit on the money you owe them because they were never paid back.

I know a few people who have been served by there lender so its a good idea to try to do a short sale on your property so your lender cant come after you for the remaining money you owe them.

Good Luck!

Answer 10

The way it usually works is that they foreclose and sell usually at a discounted price your property. However you are still responsible for the difference and yes they can take you to court and get a judgment against you. However since you are working think about filing bankruptcy because in most states you get to keep most everything and sometimes even the house.