How To Save Your Home – Cathy Harris International

July 6, 2022

Also read: Survival Steps If You Are Totally Out of Funds

The Number One Reason that Families Lost Their Homes in the Past

Did you know that in the past the number one reason that most people lost their homes were because of illness? Nowadays it’s mostly due to this recession and the weakened economy.

I lost my home when I became ill and had to leave my job on 15 months unpaid leave. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been able to save my home even without having an income.

During that time, I was able to say in my home for over 15 months without paying a house/mortgage note. At the time my options were to become homeless or stay in the house, so I took steps to stay in the house by filing a Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Sometimes when you are going through touch and difficult times, it’s better to walk away and fight back later, especially when you are ill. So I walked away from my home. I have since recovered from my illness and now would like to give others options on how to survive and keep their homes.

Since illness is still a major reason that people lose their homes, it’s important to have adequate health coverage. Some health insurances pay a specified portion of your medical bills in the event of an illness or hospitalization.

Women who are single parents and heads of household have had their lives destroyed by foreclosures. These foreclosures sometimes cause homelessness and in many cases, hopelessness.

What You Need To Know About Disability Insurance

Since illness is the number one reason for foreclosures, it is always a good idea to make sure you have some type of disability insurance.

Disability insurance is temporary insurance, so be sure to make other provisions to carry you through any type of illness you might get on or off the job.

Often you can obtain disability insurance through your job or outside your job at a company that sells disability insurance. Many people never inquire about this type of insurance unless they have been through the system or know someone who has. Just be aware that it’s there to help in case you suffer some type of disability.

Being insured for a disability is especially critical for single parents. You may be covered at work or through social security benefits, but that coverage is often restricted in the amount and duration of payments. You’ll probably need to buy your own policy to fill in the gap.

There are short-term and long-term disability insurances:

–Short-Term Disability: Short-term disability insurance might only last three months. During this time you will receive a monthly check.

–Long-Term Disability: Long-term disability insurance kicks in when an individual has been unable to work for an extended period of time. It continues to provide benefits for varying lengths of time, depending on what is specified in the worker’s contract.

Many people especially those who own homes, should look into long-term health care. This coverage is important because fortunately, on average, people are living longer lives. It’s never too early to think about how you will pay for any necessary long-term care.

This insurance generally covers at-home care, assisted living facilities, nursing home care, hospice services, adult day-care, and respite care. The benefit dollar amount can be $50 to $300 per day, depending on the policy.

Another major reason for long-term healthcare insurance is to preserve your assets. This type of insurance is also available through many organizations, such as the AARP.org.

Most disability insurance plans replace anywhere from 45 to 70 percent of the individual’s gross income, on a tax-free basis in the event that an illness prevents the policyholder from earning an income.

If you rely solely on earned income for your everyday needs, consider coverage of 60 to 70% of your gross income. Explore your options.

The cheapest price is not necessarily the first thing to look for here. Every disability policy is different, and the odds of getting paid a monthly benefit under a cheap contract can be significantly lower than receiving benefits from a quality contract.

Some policies will pay if you are disabled and can no longer work in your chosen profession, while others will pay only if you cannot work at all.

If you work for the federal government, you can file a claim through the worker’s compensation system, but it takes years to get a claim like this approved. Just make sure you file the appropriate paperwork and keep appealing it and gain the help of a Worker’s Compensation attorney.

If your doctor tells you that you have a permanent disability, you will need to file for social security (SSA.gov) benefits. Remember, it might take several months for you to qualify for social security claims, so try to prepare financially. If you go this route, try to obtain the help of a Social Security attorney.

File Your Own Bankruptcy

Over 20,000 million people will be facing homelessness as of July 1, 2022, so this is why I feel we are close to Nesara going through. Everyone was given a 90 day extension on April 1, 2022.

If you are about to become homeless take these steps:

–File Your Own Bankruptcy to Stay in Your Home:

Before funds run out you can file your own bankruptcy on your home to save it.

You can go to Office Depot and fill out the bankruptcy kit or packet and file the bankruptcy yourself – until you can obtain the services of a bankruptcy lawyer to assist you.

This will give you time to just breathe and come up for air. I did it myself back in 2001, after I became a ‘federal whistleblower’ (www.TheCathyHarrisStory.com) and my job forced me to be off work for 15 months on UNPAID sick leave. So I know this process is ‘doable’ and again it will just give you time to breathe.

Fill out as much of the bankruptcy kit as possible then take the packet to the bankruptcy court. Once they stamp the documents, fax the front page with all your info on it — over to your mortgage company. This might cost a couple of hundred dollars (more now of course).

The stamp on the paperwork should buy you some time and you won’t have to move. Your next step after filing the paperwork and obtaining a case number is to go ahead and file a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which will wipe out all your debt or at least realign your debt.

You can read more about filing for a bankruptcy in my book “How To Take Control of Your Own Life: A Self-Help Guide to Empowering Your Family and the Entire Community” (Series 2).

I ended up filing both a Chapter 7 and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. You can probably get away with not paying anything to remain in the home for several months. I was able to stay in my home rent free for a year.

In the past filing a bankruptcy would stay on your credit file for 7 years, but I don’t believe anyone will have a credit score in the future since everything was a FRAUD.

Don’t wait until the last day in which your house is supposed to be sold on the courthouse steps to file this paperwork. Homes are sold on the courthouse steps the last Tuesday of each month in the state of Georgia, where I lived.

I am not sure of the date in other states. Many people wait and sometimes the mortgage company decide to sell the property even if they know the homeowner has filed a bankruptcy. If that happens you definitely will have to obtain the services of a lawyer to have the sell reversed, if that is even possible.

If you want to go this route and file a bankruptcy, you should avoid large bankruptcy firms that treat you like a herd of cattle. They won’t return your calls or answer your questions without an appointment. Some large firms also rotate you from attorney to attorney, leaving no stability and no one really knowing your case directly.

There are four (4) common types of bankruptcies. To avoid confusion, it is important to explain the purpose of each:

–Chapter 7 allows either an individual or business to discharge virtually all unsecured debts. Remember new bankruptcy laws under a Chapter 7 requires persons with a certain income to pay back a portion of their debt.

–Chapter 11 is for individuals or coporations engaged in business who desire to reorganize their debts and seek court protection while they negotiate a plan of reorganiztion with creditors.

–Chapter 12 is alike a Chapter 13 but is only for family farmers.

–Chapter 13 is an alternative to Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It is desgined foe “wage earners” with relativity small amounts of consumer det (as opposed to business debt).

Whether you file under Chapter 7, 11, or 13, once a bankruptcy petition is filed, it operates as an AUTOMATIC STAY. Generally, all debt collection or repossession activities by creditors MUST COME TO A HALT. Likewise, all lawsuits must stop while the bankruptcy action is before the bankruptcy court.

The purpose of the AUTOMATIC STAY is to transfer all collection and debtor-creditor matters to the bankruptcy court. For example, creditors may not enforce prior judgements or liens against either the debtor or his property.

Criminal actions against the debtors do continue as do actions for the collection of back alimony or child support. If you haven’t already stopped making payments to creditors, you should stop once your petition is filed. You should, however, stay current on debts incurred after you file the petition.

Debts in bankruptcies are considered either dischargeable or non-dischargeable. In the future, when you tell potential creditors that you had a bankruptcy, they will ask if you had a discharge.

One of the reasons people file a bankruptcy is to get a discharge. A discharge is a court order that states that you do not have to pay most of your debts.

Most debts are dischargeable under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This means that you no longer have to pay the debt as it is deemed cancelled. Certain debts are not dischargeable. Debts are not discharged under either Chapter 11 or 13.

In each instance the debts are only adjusted according to a plan of repayment approved by a majority of creditors and the court.

Some debts cannot be discharged. For example, you cannot discharge debts for most taxes, child support, alimony, most student loans, court fines, criminal restitutions, and personal injury caused by driving drunk or under the influence of drugs. The discharge only applies to debts that arose before the date you filed.

Other debts that are normally dischargeable may be denied a discharge because of the actions of the debtor. One of the creditors may petition the court to deny the discharge on one specific debt or on the entire bankruptcy, leaving the debtor without relief from creditor claims.

Property owners need to be very careful with utilizing the Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney protection solution. Compare everything and make sure that the courts and/or your bankruptcy attorneys and lenders have not set you up to fail.

There have been many cases where the debt was not spread out appropriately in the bankruptcy program which resulted in the property owner paying much higher monthly payments.

In some scenarios, courts will order the property owner to pay the bankruptcy court a certain amount that only covers all other debts outside of the mortgage. Then they will have you spend a higher amount in most cases.

Watch out this procedure will set you to fail without question because if you couldn’t afford the payments before the bankruptcy at whatever amount, what makes anyone think that you can afford to pay a much higher amount?

Beware of Investors

Be careful dealing with investors because there are good ones and bad ones. The bad ones will tell you they will help you catch up on your mortgage notes, but you will have to deed the house over them.

This is called “equity skimming” which is illegal. The seller’s lender could call the entire mortgage due (due on sale clause) at any time if they discover the property owner has deeded the property to anyone — even relatives.

Remember all mortgages is about to be wiped out by Gesara so filing this bankruptcy your ownself will buy you time to continue to have a roof over your head.

–Don’t Move Until You Have To: Banks might start sending foreclosure letters 3 to 6 months before you have to move if you are at least 3 months behind on your mortgage notes.

Meanwhile, just stay there and keep a roof over your head. Don’t leave until the Marshal’s put a yellow or pink slip on your door then you will have 2 weeks to move.

–Reach Out to Family or Friends: Call family and friends for a loan or have them come and pick you up if you receive a final notice from the Marshals. Again, it will be a pink or yellow notice that they will place on your door two weeks before you need to move.

If you have to move call family and friends to see if they can hold your belongings in storage or at their garages, but by then your goal should be taking care of yourself and family and leaving behind stuff.

–Don’t Wait Until You are Totally Broke: Before you totally run out of money, you can go ahead and put all your belongings in storage for at least 90 days but if your circumstances don’t improve and you can’t make monthly payments, you will lose everything so you might also want to think about holding a yard sale and auctioning off everything.

Just understand that many people never go back to their storage units. That same money that you used to put your belongings in storage, could have been used to feed your family instead.

–Go To a Homeless Shelter: For protection to keep a roof over your head try to go to a homeless shelter, but these will probably be full. Remember if you are a single mother and have a pre-teen male, he will have to stay on the side with the men and will be at risk of being molested.

–Move In Your Car, a Van or RV: Many people move in a car, van or RV and go to Walmarts or Truck Stops or ask a family member or friend if they can park in their driveways. There are many other places you can park at overnight. Read “Places to Park Your RV, Van or Car Overnight” (https://cathyharrisinternational.com/freeparking/).