Foreclosure – Maybe Not-So-Bad 4 Kids, Says Indiana Lawyer for Bankruptcy
A good part of my time as a lawyer for bankruptcy in Indiana is spent in efforts to help stop foreclosure. In offering bankruptcy services in Indiana I see many sets of parents – and many single moms. As a dad myself, I’m particularly sympathetic to both moms and dads trying to cope with financial problems and do the best for their kids. So, for all these reasons, I’m interested in research on how kids are affected by foreclosure and by bankruptcy.
Last fall, one of the Columbus bankruptcy lawyers who works in the Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices there brought in an article she’dfound in MarketWatch.com, quoting a Federal Reserve officer saying that “Children could be prevented from realizing their potential in school, and, eventually, the labor force as consequences from the problem of home foreclosures.”
Then, just recently, in the course of my own reading to find important Indiana bankruptcy information to share with my Bankruptcy in Indiana readers, I learned that an Indiana University researcher has teamed up with three other universities in a study that will look at “why children’s grades often suffer when their families lose their homes to foreclosure. I.U. assistant professor Ashlyn Aika Nelson says previous research has show that “the experience of losing one’s home and being forced to move can negatively impact a child’s grades”. It’s not clear, though, why that’s the case.
I’m going to be extremely interested in the results of this research project. I must tell you that, as a debt consolidation lawyer offering Indiana bankruptcy help for almost twenty five years, I still think that sometimes allowing a foreclosure to happen may be the best choice for a parent. My “motto” always is, “It depends”. Each situation is different, and therefore there is no one right choice. Parents want to do the best for their children, and sometimes that comes down to making difficult choices when none of the alternatives is ideal.
All the good bankruptcy attorneys in Indiana who are my colleagues are well aware that, to mortgage lenders, a foreclosure is a very serious thing, more so than even a bankruptcy. If a foreclosure is one your record, you’re probably going to have trouble getting into a smaller home or even renting one. Knowing that, I spend a lot of time discussing compromise solutions with clients’ mortgage lenders, including short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure.
On the other hand, while bankruptcy chapter 7 in Indiana might now allow you to keep your home, Chapter 13 bankruptcy law in Indiana is tailor-made for parents to whom keeping their home is at the top of the priority list.
In fact, I’d say getting the priorities straight is the Number One goal when I, as an Indianapolis bankruptcy lawyer am meeting with clients, especially when those clients happen to be parents of school-aged children. It’s not always true, though, that keeping a home so that kids don’t need to move to a new environment is automatically the best choice. In many situations, I find, letting the home go and making a fresh financial start might actually be the better alternative. That’s especially true if, as is quite often the case, there’s been a job loss by a breadwinner, or health problems, or a divorce going on. Parents need to realize this home is now (and perhaps always was) just “too much house” to ever be financially feasible to maintain.
It all comes back to my motto as an Indiana lawyer for bankruptcy: “It depends.”
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