Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: do I have to sell my home

They could garnish your bank account, at which point you would object and show them that the money in the bank account is social security and retirement and is exempt.

However, that would disrupt your finances for a month or two while you got into court to fight about it.

So it might be better to move your bank account, to a bank where they do not know where it is. (If they call you in for debtor's interrogatories you will have to truthfully tell them about your finances including your bank account.)

The court is not going to demand anything. All that will happen in court will be that on the first court date the judge will ask "Do you agree or not agree (INCLUDING THE DOLLAR TOTAL)?" If you don't know where they came up with the total or understand it, you can say "No, I don't understand the total amount they are asking here."

On the second date, the Court would enter a judgment against you, which is only a paper court decision that you owe the money.

It is then up to the creditor to try to find money to collect on the judgment.

They would then need to garnish your bank (if they know where it is), or garnish your wages (you don't have any), or try to seize and sell something else.

At that point they would have to go through a lot of work to do that (it ain't easy), and ASK the Court to do this.

Because you have a mortgage on your house (even though a reverse mortgage) it is unlikely that they would be able to do anything to your house. In today's market it is unlikely that there is any equity in your house, or enough to allow for any action.

I would say you have time to work on things before that point.