Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Connecticut

Difficulty with Removal of Lien after Bankruptcy

Divorced in 1989, our home went to Forclosure, we had a 2nd mortg and a car loan from creditunion, the 2nd was paid, A judgement was issued for the car loan. I rented for a 9 yrs. Serious illness, outof work 1 1/2 yrs,as a single parent,finally bought condo with seller taking back small 2nd mortg,8/2000.Immediately a lien was put on the condo for the $4,000 balance of car loan, now $22,000. went to local attorney, said I had to go bankrupt to get lien rem'd. did that as only way to get rid of lien. discharged 9/2002. 22,000Debt discharged. Attorney for credit union now wants 1000, no guarantee to release lien. My BK attorney requests 1000 to go to court to request release. Is this a correct, legal request? I thought they had to release as I was origially was told due to debt being discharged and requesting money after that was illegal.

any help, correct legal guidance would be greatly appreciated. I am unable to pay off 2nd as I had agreed, and live on very limited income.


Asked on 2/23/03, 10:33 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Joel M. Grafstein Grafstein & Arcaro, LLC

Re: Difficulty with Removal of Lien after Bankruptcy

Just because you filed a bankruptcy petition does not mean that a creditor has to release the lien. Within the bankruptcy a motion should have been filed to avoid the lien as impairing your homestead exemption. This was not done and therefore you have two choices. One, hiring someone to reopen your bankruptcy case(with a filing fee of $155)and then pressing the motion to avoid the lien. The second alternative is to pay the attorney the fee for the release of the lien. As to whether your attorney should have filed the motion, you need to look at your retainer agreement.

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Answered on 2/23/03, 8:45 pm


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