So, What’s a Poor Homeowner to Do?

By Carole Bess, Bess, Blougouras, Freyberg & Pennington, P.A., Merritt Island, Florida

Bankruptcy, offers a solution to many of these HOA dilemmas. Attorneys representing owners with HOA liens and arrears, and future fees, should, however, proceed with great care, and caution. The Bankruptcy Code regarding HOA fees is not as easy to decipher as it might appear at first glance, and the law must be interpreted in conjunction with Florida Statutes and emerging case law.

What happens to HOA fees where the homeowner elects to surrender their homes?

That depends.

Debtors, filing the most common and easiest . . .

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Trustees’ Pet Peeves

October 11, 2020

By Mary Viegelahn, Chapter 13 Trustee San Antonio, Texas Although Trustee Viegelahn first produced this list for an ethics panel in 2019, it is a timely heads-up now. This list was gathered from Trustees across the country. Providing ECF credentials to an outside “firm” to allow them to file a bankruptcy for a debtor the attorney has never met or...

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Chapter 13 Trustee Duties, Powers, And Limitations – Part 5

November 1, 2020

By James J. Robinson, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Alabama Under what circumstances should the trustee object to claims (assuming a purpose would be served under § 707(a)(5))? Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, 137 S. Ct. 1407 (2017). This case centered around the debtor’s argument that a creditor violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it...

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Congress, It’s Time to Get Rid of That Stupid Means Test

May 31, 2020

(Reprinted with permission: https://www.dailyjournal.com/) By M. Jonathan Hayes, Resnik Hayes, Moradi LLP (Los Angeles) I met with my best friend Jim King, consumer bankruptcy attorney extraordinaire, during the Thanksgiving break in 2014, several weeks before his untimely death. We met at his office in Glendale to do his oral history. Somewhere in there I told him he could borrow my...

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Progeny of Taggart: In re Gravel and Newrez, LLC v. Beckhart

September 12, 2021

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction In re Taggart In 2019, the Supreme Court in In re Taggart1 ruled that the acts alleged in that case to be in violation of a discharge injunction did not empower the bankruptcy court to find the creditor in contempt. In so holding, the Court ostensibly attempted to strike...

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The NCBJ Is Turning 100

The Honorable Deborah L. Thorne, The Honorable Kathy A. Surratt-States

April 21, 2024

Judge Deborah Thorne, NDIL, and Judge Kathy Surratt-States, EDMO, on behalf of the NCBJ’s DEI Committee, have written two articles about some of judicial firsts.

Critical Case Comment – But It’s a GOLF CART!

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

November 20, 2022

A golf cart is a motor vehicle and may be exempted by a Chapter 7 debtor under state law. (Loyd) In re Smith, 2022 WL 3023209 (Bankr. W.D. Okla. July 28, 2022) Case Summary Bobby Smith filed a Chapter 7 petition and listed his golf cart as an exempt asset under Oklahoma law because it was a “motor vehicle.” The...

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Who Gets Grannie’s Cash – Grannie or the Bankruptcy Trustee?

Cathy Moran

February 13, 2022

When there’s a joint bank account and a bankruptcy filing, good intentions can quickly go sour. The bankruptcy trustee sees a pile of money in the bank to which the debtor has access, even though the account also bears the name of someone not in bankruptcy. If the debtor can get the money, the trustee contends, so can a bankruptcy...

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When $400 Emergency Pushes You Over the Edge

September 8, 2019

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) The Federal Reserve reported that 40% of Americans couldn’t meet a $400 emergency without borrowing. A significant slice of them couldn’t pay it at all. So, a Bloomberg economist devoted his column to deconstructing how the press and political figures, in his opinion, misused that finding. OMGoodness. The guy was too caught up...

Critical Case Comment – Service Counts

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

October 2, 2022

Debtor’s filing application to extend or impose the automatic stay must comply with the service requirements of Rule 7004 as to all creditors or the stay cannot be imposed or extended. (Johnson) In re Hardy, 2022 WL 1196963 (C.D. Cal. April 21, 2022) Case Summary Kimberly Hardy had a long history in consumer bankruptcy. She had filed eight cases, including...

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Impact of COVID-19 and the CARES ACT on Mortgages

April 19, 2020

By Michael McCormick, Senior Partner, McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC (Roswell, GA) H.R. 748, also known as the CARES Act (herein, “the Act”), was enacted into law on March 27, 2020. The Act is meant to address the economic fallout of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Act contains numerous consumer protections, including several pertaining to residential mortgages. Relief from Foreclosure Section...

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