6 years later

We are still dealing with the lien that, unbeknownst to us, had gone on our property a few months before we filed bankruptcy. Bank of America is just giving us the total run around. Every time you call (their "legal team dept") you get a different person and a different answer. Though each person (and the 2 collectors they tried to refer us back to) has said they are not trying to collect on the debt anymore, they show it written off in our bankruptcy.  Today's runaround answers now are leading that they just want us to offer them a settlement to make the lien go away.  DH told them if anyone's getting money out of this it will be an attorney to handle it, not them. The debt was included in our bankruptcy.

A call last week to the county, because I wanted to see actual documents for the lien filing, not just the 2 page piece of paper that is just the judgement that we owe the bank the money. Apparently, BofA didn't even really file the lien, from what I can gather, and what our BK attorney said. The county court just automatically attaches it to real property.

What also infuriates me is that we went to our BK attorney, to file bankruptcy AND for her legal expertise. Why in the world would she not have told us to check and see if there are any liens on our home? Obviously with all the debt and getting sued by the companies we owed money to, there was apparently (not that we knew this) possibility of liens happening. Not to mention it would have been more money for her at the time.

So, I have a message into our BK attorney to get this process started. From what I gather reading, we will have to file a motion to re-open our BK case and then file a lien avoidance. It sounds like it won't be a problem, just takes time, of course. At the time the value of our home was well than we owed on our mortgage and home equity loans (the voluntary liens) as well as the debt owed to BoA (the involuntary lien), so it shouldn't be a problem to get the avoidance issued.

Depending on how quickly we sell our home, this could still be an issue. I did just read that it might be possible to have the escrow company hold the funds for the lien, while we are going through the legal process. That way, a sale could still go through. If we can get what our realtor is expecting out of our place, that shouldn't be an issue for us to do that. I have our realtor checking into that possibility, should the need arise.

I know it will all get figured out. It's just extremely frustrating to have to have this added stress. Like DH says, BofA could release the lien. Someone there has that authority, especially knowing the debt was listed and included in our BK and that we will go to court now anyway, to have it released. Just a waste of everyone's time and the attorney gets to keep making money.