Basking Ridge, NJ Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

You would need to look at the terms of the contract you have with Honda Credit to see if this is a secured debt or not. I do not have access to the credit information from this particular creditor, but typically, these kinds of debts are secured and to keep the property, you must pay at least the fair value of the property.

If you are behind on your mortgage payments and can't bring the loan current, chapter 7 may only delay the foreclosure sale. You can later convert to chapter 13 to bring the mortgage current (if you can come with a feasible plan). You might consider just filing the chapter 13 instead of a 7. Chapter 13 can stop a foreclosure sale, but there may be details that you haven't provided that would result in a sale only being delayed. Generally, you do not go to court when you file bankruptcy. You will go the "meeting of creditors" which does not involve a judge. That happens about a month after your case is filed. The foreclosure sale date (if the lender gets the court to lift the automatic stay) is not related to the meeting of creditors date. Your best bet would be to talk to an attorney about the specifics of your situation. Most offer free consultations and you'll leave with a better idea of how bankruptcy may be able to help you.

A secured party has the right to repossess if a payment is late for any period, even one day. There are a couple of limitations on that right. First, if the secured party has previously accepted late payments, it may be prohibited from strict enforcement of the payment deadline. Second, Illinois allows a consumer who has paid more than 30 percent of the total of payments (counting any down payment or trade in in both the numerator and denominator) to reinstate by tendering the missed payments and repossession expenses. If you have that right the secured party is probably not entitled to refuse a tender of the amount necessary to bring the contract current prior to repossession.