Transcript

Hello, my name’s Andrew Sawin. I’m an attorney at Sawin and Shea. We’re bankruptcy attorneys, and we’re here to talk today about evictions. With the current COVID-19 crisis, I know many of you are having trouble paying rent, keeping up with the house or apartment payments. You’re worrying more than ever about what’s going to happen and how you’re going to get caught up or deal with this living situation. Right now, there’s a moratorium on evictions, but at some point in the future that’s going to go away. If you can’t come to reasonable terms with your landlord, we’ve got some bankruptcy options that might help. Bankruptcy can provide you with protection from your landlord in the short term. And in some cases, we can even use a bankruptcy to help you get caught up on rent payments you’ve fallen behind on.

A chapter 7 bankruptcy can discharge your responsibility to pay on a breached lease. It’ll do away with any deficiency or damage claims, and it can free up your credit to move on and rent another place. A chapter 13 bankruptcy in some circumstances can be used to catch up on payments that you’ve fallen behind on. It’s a reasonably rare circumstance. You’ve got to be able to afford to get caught up in what the law defines is a reasonable amount of time after we file a bankruptcy, but the reorganization plan can act to get you caught up on payments.

If you have questions about evictions and how bankruptcy might be able to help you, please feel free to give us a call. We do offer free consultations via video or telephone. Give us a call. Thank you.