Benton Harbor, MI Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

In theory, homes and cars are subject to payment of judgments. There is a homestead exemption ($15,000) for a home and a $2,400 statutory exemption for a car, plus a $4,000 wildcard exemption that can be applied to any property. As a practical matter, the cost of enforcing a judgment against either is not economical for a $2,000 claim. For example, to foreclose a lien on a home, the creditor would have to pay you the homestead exemption, sell the property, and account to you for any proceeds in excess of the judgment.

You need to explain all of the circumstances to an attorney in order to get valid advise. Generally HOA's do not wave late fees, interest or attorney's fees.

To be clear, the fact that you don't know if you can file a Chapter 7 right away, tells me that in fact you do need an attorney. It is unfortunate that you had such a bad experience with two attorneys, but I think that is the exception rather than the rule. In a Chapter 7 you have to be very careful and do it correctly or you could lose assets. That being said, it appears from what you have written, that you can go ahead and file another chapter 7 because the prior case was dismissed and not discharged. However, because this is a "successive" filing, if you need the protection of the automatic stay you will only have it for 30 days on this bankruptcy, without filing a motion to extend the automatic stay. And, that motion has to be filed immediately and you have to get the order signed before the 30 days is up. So, as you can see there are some complications that you might need an attorney to help you with.