Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Illinois

Re: filing chapter 7, and keeping home

If you convert your case to Chapter 7 a couple negative things are likely to happen. First of all a chapter 7 trustee will be assigned to your case to determine of you have any assets to be sold to pay your bills. If you don't have valuable property this is OK, but be very careful. Secondly, once you convert to a Chapter 7 case you no longer have the right to dismiss the case, so if something goes wrong you are stuck.

The best case is that you have no equity in the house (after exemptions) and the trustee files a no asset report. Then you can do a 'reaffirmation agreement' with the lender on your house.

Do yourself a favor and hire an experienced local bankruptcy lawyer.