House retained in chapter 7 discharge

[Anonymous]

I am currently waiting for my chapter 7 discharge and I just checked my credit score and it said that my mortgage was down to $0 because of the bankruptcy. I am current with my payments and always planned to keep the house. There is no equity in it. I guess I didn't realize that the mortgage would be wiped out too since I said all along I would be paying and staying in the house. I've been doing some reading and people say that as long as I keep paying I can stay there. Which is great. But it doesn't help my credit score because payments aren't being refelcted. And what happens when I want to sell the house one day? My wife (she did not file with me) are hoping to buy a house in 5 years. We are working towards that. Will I be able to sell my current house like normal? I had no idea the balance would show $0 on my credit score. I checked the bank and it is as normal and shows the balance and has no mention of the bankruptcy. Does this mean that the bank will no longer send me any tax information or anything like that? Do I have to show it in my taxes? My discharge should come through the beginning of December.

[DaveInAZ]

I didn't reaffirm my mortgage in my 2010 BK7 and still have the mortgage, never late before, during, or since discharge.

When you don't reaffirm a mortgage in BK7 the debt is discharged so it will show a $0 balance, closed, and your continued payments will not be reported on your credit reports. Yes, by law the lender will have to send you the yer-end tax statements. My lender also lists all my payments on the tax form, yours should so be sure to save those as proof of your on time payments for a future mortgage app.

One thing to be careful of is how you make your payments. My lender, BMO Harris, still refuses to setup auto payments taking the payment from my bank account, They say they can't "take" a payment from my account, they can only accept voluntary payments sent to them, so I use my bank's bill pay to send them the payments. But my lender is overly cautious, I've read that other lenders are happy to resume auto draft after discharge.

While the mortgage will show $0 balance on your credit report the lender will continue to amortize your payments just as before, applying your payments against interest and against the principal. When you sell your house it will be a "normal" transaction - the lender will provide a pay-off balance and will release the lien on the title when the pay-off balance is paid.

[Anonymous]

I'm stay and pay with Fannie Mae with Seterus as a servicer (horrible). 

The bank may also refuse to send out monthly statements (if they stopped when you filed, its likely they will not sent them after discharge). The good news on that front is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amended regulations which means that effect April 2018, most lenders/servicers will have to resume sending statement to borrowers who are in bankruptcy or who were discharged.

It is a bit of a PITA keeping track of things without statement, I am so looking forward to getting them again.   

This is a link to a story from a mortgage industry web site concerning this regulation modification:  http://www.usfn.org/blogpost/1296766/260676/CFPB-S-New-Final-Rules-Periodic-Statements-during-Bankru...