We ended up owing way more on our FL home than it was worth when the housing market crashed. We were unable to sell and our mortgage company refused to work anything out with us, so we went into default on the loan and let it go to foreclosure.

We quit paying on the mortgage in 2006 but remained living in the home, saving money in order to move until 8/2007. We were never served eviction papers, we had plans to move back home to AR so we left the house vacant once we were able to do so.
The mortgage company sold the property in 2008 for $38,000.00, which was a lot less than our mortgage balance of $125,000.00. We were never contacted by the mortgage company in any way after we left the house. The house was sold again in 2009 for $98,000.00, which was slightly above it's appraisal value.

We had discussed our situation with an IRS lady and she said we "should" at some time receive a form from our former lender for tax purposes that states we are either relieved of the debt or we still owe the debt. So far, 5 years later, nothing to that effect has been received.

I had previously heard that a mortgage company has 5 years in which they or another collection company could continue to pursue a debtor for the defaulted motgage loan amount. Is this still true? Should we be concerned about being pursued for this debt or not? Has their time limit run out?

At some point in the near future I'm sure we will file a Chapter 7 to try to re-build our shattered credit, can we do that now or should we wait even longer to be sure they won't pursue us for the mortgage debt?

Thanks for any help or advice you may have.

There is a time frame that they may sue you in court for a judgement,

They may on a valid debt attempt collection till the day you die. ( they just can't sue after the SOL runs out)