{"id":70,"date":"2012-01-26T21:03:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T21:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/?p=70"},"modified":"2021-05-04T20:41:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T20:41:06","slug":"can-i-get-rid-of-a-judgment-lien-when-filing-a-chapter-7-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/2012\/can-i-get-rid-of-a-judgment-lien-when-filing-a-chapter-7-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Get Rid of a Judgment Lien When Filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ryan C. Wood<\/a><\/p>\n

In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy you are not be able to avoid junior mortgages or equity lines of credit (considered to be consensual liens) on your property even if your house is underwater.\u00a0 Treatment of underwater liens is different in a Chapter 7 case then a Chapter 13 case.\u00a0 However, the good news is that you can avoid a judgment lien in a Chapter 7, thereby removing the judgment lien from your real property.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the difference between a consensual lien and a judgment lien?\u00a0 A consensual lien is a bargained for lien \u2013 this is normally referring to liens like your mortgages or equity line of credit.\u00a0 You agreed to have a lien recorded against your property in exchange for financial benefit (money loaned to you).\u00a0 A judgment lien is not consensual.\u00a0 This type of lien is normally recorded against your property after your creditor obtains a judgment against you.\u00a0 Thus, the rule in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is that you can avoid a judgment lien since it was involuntarily placed on your property and you cannot avoid a consensual lien since you agreed to have it recorded against your property.\u00a0 The courts do not want to interfere with any contracts that you voluntarily entered into.\u00a0 You can strip underwater junior liens and equity lines of credit in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but not a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and you have judgment liens that you would like to avoid from your property, you have authority to do so under 11 U.S.C \u00a7522.\u00a0 In order to avoid the judgment lien, the lien needs to impair an exemption.\u00a0 Exemptions are what protect your property that has value from becoming part of the bankruptcy estate.\u00a0 So if you have a lien that combined with all the other senior liens on your property and your exemptions on the property exceed what your house is worth, you can avoid that judgment lien and avoid it from your property.\u00a0 Even if your property is underwater and there is no equity to exempt you can still apply an exemption and avoid the judgment lien.\u00a0 This is a jurisdictional issue that must be researched in your jurisdiction though.\u00a0 The majority of the courts indicate that you can still avoid a judgment lien even if no exemptions are being impaired.\u00a0 The lien only has to impair an exemption that the debtor could have<\/em> claimed.\u00a0 Remember, only nonconsensual liens like a judgment lien can be avoided under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, not consensual liens like mortgages. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you have any questions regarding avoidance of judgment liens in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or would like to speak with an experienced bankruptcy lawyer<\/a> or bankruptcy attorney in Fremont<\/a>, please call us today at 877-9NEW-LIFE or 877-963-9543 today for a free consultation. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ryan C. Wood In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy you are not be able to avoid junior mortgages or equity lines of credit (considered to be consensual liens) on your property even if your house is underwater.\u00a0 Treatment of underwater liens is different in a Chapter 7 case then a Chapter 13 case.\u00a0 However, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[121,136],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fremont-bankruptcy-attorney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}