Monday, November 1, 2010

Bankruptcy And Deficiency Judgments

Virginia allows deficiency judgments, as do the majority of the states.  What this means is, if you fail to make payments on your house and the bank forecloses, they can still go after you for the "deficiency" – the difference between what you owed for the house and what the house sold for in foreclosure.  What's worse, most of the time, the foreclosing bank will sell your delinquent account so some other debt collection company, and now these "vultures," as they are often called, are coming after you.

What do you do?  Well, the possibility of a deficiency judgment is just another factor that counsels in favor of bankruptcy in some cases, as bankruptcy will wipe out liability for any potential deficiencies, as well as other unsecured debts.  In other cases, you may be better off negotiating a "release" from the bank during the process of foreclosure.  

In any event, make sure that this issue is addressed in your particular situation to avoid any extremely unpleasant surprises in the future.

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