Fresno Bankruptcy Lawyer

In the September 2007 issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, Hank Hildebrand opines that one solution to the subprime mortgage crisis would be to remove the protection of Section 1322(b)(2) for residential mortgages and to allow subprime residential mortgages to be modified. (Hank Hildebrand is the chapter 13 Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee and a nationally recognized expert on Chapter 13.) In my opinion, we should entirely remove the special protection for residential mortgages.

In August 2003, Michael Jones filed a Chapter 13 case to save his home. He had fallen behind on his mortgage with Wells Fargo and a Chapter 13 offered him the chance to catch up that arrearage. After making Chapter 13 payments for a couple of years, Michael decided to refinance to pay off his Chapter 13 plan. However, Wells Fargo sent a payoff that was substantially higher than he expected and which would eat up so much of the loan proceeds that he could not pay off his other Chapter 13 creditors. Unfortunately, he had to follow-through on the loan or lose it. So Michael allowed the loan to close and Wells Fargo’s demand to be paid, and filed an adversary proceeding against Wells Fargo.