What is Needed in Order to File an Emergency Chapter 13?

If you are currently facing the loss of your home and property within a few days, you need to act NOW. This is not the time to procrastinate or guess what you should do. You have time to file an emergency Chapter 13 bankruptcy and stop the foreclosure process in its tracks, and this is most likely the course of action that an attorney is going to advice. Our firm – Clark & Washington – specializes in Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings in order to stop the foreclosure proceedings and save your home. However, if there are other alternatives available to you, we will recommend those if they are applicable to your situation.

There are certain things that we will need to know in order to proceed with your case. First and foremost, we need to know if you have filed a Chapter 7 or 13 in the recent past, no matter where you were living in the country. This may or may not have a bearing on your case and/or your right to proceed with an emergency Chapter 13 filing. Just make sure you inform us about this information, as there are special guidelines and rules to follow that apply to prior filers of bankruptcy.

Despite what you have heard about filing a bankruptcy case and the fact that it may involve dozens of documents, the law does allow the filing of an emergency Chapter 13. This enables the generation of a case number and creates the bankruptcy protection that you need to save your home. The emergency filing is typically a 2-page petition, but before we can file it, we will need the following as a bare minimum:

• A certificate of credit counseling
• Your mortgage creditor’s name and address, and your account number
• The name and address of the legal firm that your mortgage lender hired in order to process the foreclosure on your home
• A Chapter 13 filing fee of $274

The above information will usually be sufficient enough so that we can proceed with the emergency Chapter 13 filing and save your home. Just keep in mind that this 2-page petition mentioned above will not be enough to carry you through the process and have the filing approved by a bankruptcy judge. Therefore, it is imperative that you produce all the applicable documents needed within 14 days of the emergency filing so that we can finish the petition and your Chapter 13 repayment plan.