Long Beach Office
3780 Kilroy Airport Way, Suite 200
Long Beach, CA 90806
Phone: (800) 958-6760
Available 24/7/365 by phone
Directions
Monday – Friday: 8:30am – 7:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: Closed
Long Beach Bankruptcy Attorney
Most of those we meet in our Long Beach office have two huge problems: credit card debt and mortgage woes. The surrounding areas of Lakewood, Bellflower, and even in Inglewood are rife with homeowners who, due to job loss, unaffordable adjustable mortgages or underwater homes are simply at their wits’ end with their home. Often, they will have to make the difficult choice to short sell the home or let the home go through foreclosure. For those that are fighting to keep their home, a new piece of legislation might have made these particular problems more surmountable.
Recently, a bi-partisan committee made up of California legislators completed the drafting of the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights sponsored by the State Attorney General, Kamala Harris. Because the Bill of Rights was drafted by both Republicans and Democrats, it sailed through the legislature and is was signed into effect by the Governor. This is the first time a bill such as this has had success. Many other past drafts have failed due to bi-partisan disagreement and opposition by large banks.
Before the passage of this bill, a client of ours in the Lakewood area came to us with a typical Chapter 13 case. He and his wife were behind on their mortgage and had just been denied modification by the bank. They now had a sale date scheduled for the next month. They were shocked as they thought they were safe not paying the mortgage during the frustrating process. In the Chapter 13, we caught them up, stripped off their second mortgage and reorganized on their vehicle. By law, many of the banks who took bailout money are supposed to be aiding distressed homeowners. However, the modification process was often heart breaking. Clients often struggle to confirm receipt of important documents. They are required to continuously send in documentation and are given no response for a long time. The problem is that, during this long negotiation, they clients are not paying their mortgage, per their bank’s instructions. Eventually their home enters foreclosure and they are assured by the bank that the home will not actually foreclose while the modification is being reviewed. Hopefully, the new legislation will have changed this process.
The Homeowner’s Bill of Rights would halt the process where two different departments are working on one property. In short, right now distressed homeowners work with a modification expert while the home is in the foreclosure department. The Bill of Rights would create a law whereby each bank had to create one representative per property. The representative would monitor where the property was in both the foreclosure and the modification process.
The second problem faces by our clients are plain old credit card woes or just plain bad credit from bad decisions made, often years before coming to us. One common scenario is illustrated in a client from Long Beach, living by our office near the airport. She had made some bad decisions when she was younger and had a horrible credit score. She was trying to move into an apartment in the Belmont Shores area and was not allowed due to her credit. We helped her file a Chapter 7. She was able, post bankruptcy, to move into the apartment and, now, two years later, owns a home here in Long Beach. Stories like that are common in this area and make us proud to do what we do.
