Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: warrent

No, it's unlikely that the creditor will be taking your home, particularly if you're married and hold

title to the property with your wife by what the law calls "tenants by the entireties", and she has no responsibility for any part of the debt claimed by the creditor.

Furthermore, if "it's mortgaged to the max", as you claim, there would be nothing for this particular creditor to take anyway.

Re: warrent

Whether they can take your home has nothing at all to do with the box marked "homestead exemption." The exemption has to do with something completely different, that usually involves bankruptcy law. The creditor should have let the judge check the box, I think, if I recall. (I signed thousands of WID's, but we never really used that box.)

It is technically possible for them to go after your home -- or any other assets -- for payment of the debt.

However, there are several steps between here and there. They have to go to court and win a trial (unless you admit that you owe the money).

Then they have to try to collect on any successful judgment.

This normally takes the form of garnishing your wages or your bank account. Other methods of collecting (such as going after a house or other property) is a lot more work. So it is usually a last resort. That is particularly true where there are other lienholders such as the mortgage company. If there is no equity in the house above the mortgage, they are not going to touch it.

Any court judgment can automatically act as a "lien' against your real estate. That is, if you sell or refinance the lien must be paid off in the process to release the property.