Winter Haven, FL Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

If the co-owner is not your spouse whose co-ownership interest is community property, and if the judgment lien attached after the co-owner acquired his or her ownership interest, then the judgment lien against you only attaches to your ownership share of the house. If the co-owner is not your spouse, and the judgment is not against the co-owner of the house, then the co-owner's share of the house is not subject to the lien of the judgment creditor. The judgment lien on a debtor's residence will survive a Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy case unless it can be avoided [extinguished] by a motion to the bankruptcy judge for an order avoiding the judgment lien on the ground that the lien impairs your homestead exemption. You will need a bankruptcy attorney to make such a motion. Several conditions must exist for the motion to succeed. First, you must prove you reside in the house. Second, you must prove that you have less equity in your house than the full amount of your automatic homestead exemption, but if the bankruptcy court would make an order reducing or eliminating the judgment lien, then that would produce equity up to the amount of your automatic homestead exemption. The amount of the automatic homestead exemption in California is $75,000 for a single person, and it is higher if you have a spouse or child residing in the house with you, and it is still higher if you are disabled or over the age of 65 or over the age of 55 with limited income.

It is unclear what happened to you in your situation. You ramble all over the place in your question and muddy the waters to the point where I cannot give a clear cohesive answer. If you filed for bankruptcy during a time when it would have covered this debt then the debt would be effectively discharged whether or not you listed it on the bankruptcy petition unless you have an asset bankruptcy case. Most people have no asset cases which means that a trustee will not take any assets to disburse among the creditors. If this was the case in your case, you are making mistakes in entering into any payment plan with these people. All you need do is advise them of the date and filing number of your bankruptcy and explained that the debt was discharged. If however the debt was attached and secured by property then you have a different problem and they can repossess cars or whatever property the debts are attached to. You need to see a lawyer.