Chapter 7
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Get a Fresh Start with Chapter 7 Tampa Bankruptcy
Chapter 7 Tampa bankruptcy allows you to walk away from a mortgage you cannot afford. Chapter 7 will also temporarily stop a foreclosure and give you time to find a new place to live.
Chapter 7 is a liquidation rather than a reorganization of debt. There is no payment plan and there is no payment plan to catch up and repay missed mortgage payments. In other words, if you are behind on your mortgage and you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Tampa, you will most likely need to surrender your home.
When you file a Chapter 7 debt liquidation, you can stop a pending foreclosure for a few weeks to a few months. After you file, the mortgage company will file a motion in bankruptcy court called a motion for relief from stay. In this motion, the lender will ask the Tampa bankruptcy judge to lift bankruptcy protection as to your mortgage so it can restart the foreclosure process.
The motion for relief process typically takes about three to four weeks to complete, at which point the lender has to start the Tampa foreclosure process over from the beginning. This means that, in most cases, you will have between four to eight weeks to prepare to move and to find a new place to live. Although filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Tampa will not enable you to keep your home permanently, it will give you breathing room and a chance to move on your terms.
Filing Costs: For a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, the federal filing fee is $335.00. If you qualify we can file your case for as little as $195 down. Remaining filing fees must be paid within 60 days of file date. A credit counseling certificate is required to file, $45.00 (this fee includes both the pre-filing and the pre-discharge counseling) and is included in your down payment of $195. This counseling may be done at our office while we are opening the file or online at anytime.
We can also obtain your credit report for $15.00 for a single report, $30.00 for a joint report. This is not mandatory but we find it to be very helpful if you don’t have a complete and accurate list of creditors.
Attorney’s fees: Clark & Washington charges $1,250.00 for attorney’s fees in a routine Chapter 7 case.
To sum it up, the cost to file a Chapter 7 consists of the Filing fee of $335.00, the credit counseling fee of $45.00, and our attorney’s fees of $1250.00, for a total of $1630 for a standard Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
You may pay attorney’s fees and costs by cash, personal check, debit card, money order or checks from a third-party. We can also open a file and hold it open until all the fees and costs are paid; at which time we will file your case.
Although our standard fee of $1,250.00 applies in 90% of our cases, this fee can vary (both up and down) depending on a number of factors such as:
- the total amount of debt
- the type of debt ( secured debt, judgments, credit cards, taxes, student loans etc…)
- the amount and type of assets
- whether you owe either priority or stale taxes
- the number of pieces of real estate owned
