Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

You have a couple of issues here. First, mobile homes, unless they are attached to the land, are treated like personal property. And even if they are attached, you have to have them listed on the deed and the certificate of title cancelled. Since you indicate that you rent the land, you cannot have had the mobile home put on the deed.

I don't understand why you cannot rent out the home. The tenant would have to enter into their own lease for the lot with the landlord or you can check your lease agreement and see if you can sublet the lot out.

I assume that if you can't do a short sale or add to the sale proceeds, then you have few options. Assuming you walk away, the lending company will do a repossession. However, mobile homes are not like cars - they are much harder to seize and sell. Assuming that the home is repossessed, it ultimately will be sold by the lender. And if no buyer will come close to paying what is owed, the lender is going to even get less than that when they sell it. At that point, the lender will come after you and sue you. They have 3 years after the date on which you stopped making your payment.

So yes, the lender can sue you provided that they can prove that they bought the loan. They will be required to not only attach the loan documents (your initial promissory note) but also all the documents in the chain of title to prove that they got the loan from your original lender. As long as they can do this, they stand in the shoes of the original lender and can do whatever the original lender could do as they have the same rights and responsibilities.

Depending on what else you own and owe, you can decide what to do when you are sued. Your options are litigate if you have grounds, file bankruptcy, do nothing or try to resolve the debt in some way. The deficiency is like any other unsecured debt. It can be resolved. Even after judgment.

Your wages cannot be garnished in North Carolina. In other states they can. A judgment will permit them to execute (try and collect). Whether they will get anything or not depends on what you have. If you get sued, I would worry about it at that time, not now. If you are really concerned, please email me at rachelforjustice@hotmail,com. I give free email consults (phone consults are $50) and we can discuss asset protection strategies and your options in more detail.