Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Wisconsin

Late Mortgage Payments--Insufficient Income--Bankruptcy

If your problem is too little income for future mortgage payments, then you are wasting your time trying to save the house--you should instead try to sell it before the bank forecloses (assuming that you do not have the option of increasing your income). In WI, one can have anywhere from six to twelve months after the bank sues to remain in a residence which is being foreclosed rent free. You also have a right to sell it during that time for a sufficient amount to pay off the mortgage (and keep anything left over for yourself). However, you need to discuss this problem with an attorney and advise him of all the facts (rather than the few facts which you have given me) before you make a decision. A chapter 13 bankruptcy can save a home where the mortgage delinquency is caused by, for example, a temporary layoff, by giving you a chance to catch up on your payments under the supervision of the court (whether or not the bank agrees). This only works, however, where your income is high enough to support the normal mortgage payments in the future plus a payment to your chapter 13 plan large enough to catch up over five years (and large enough to pay at least a minimal dividend to your unsecured creditors).