Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Tennessee

Re: Length of time to surrender property after bankruptcy

If I understand your question correctly, I am assuming that the house you are surrendering is in Tennessee and you live in Alaska. You have relatives living in the house in Tennessee that you are surrendering. If this is correct, there really is no set time for your relatives to vacate the home. Normally if you are surrendering real property in Tennessee, no foreclosure is necessary as usually the details would be handled between your attorney and the mortgage company. If this is not done, the mortgage company may feel that it needs to go through a formal foreclosure to clear the title, that would be up to them. If the mortgage company does choose to go through a foreclosure, they would have to wait until your bankruptcy is discharged or ask for the stay to be lifted in order to start foreclosure. Once foreclosure is started, it can usually be finished in Tennessee within 90 days with no problem. Then, if your relatives are still living in the house, the mortgage company would have to initiate eviction proceedings in the local court which normally take no more than 60 days. Once the court orders your relatives to move out of the house, they will get 10 days to move before the sheriff puts them out. However, as I stated at the beginning, normally these routes are not taken when a property is surrendered in bankruptcy as most details are usually worked out between the debtor's attorney and the mortgage company's attorney.