Hi there. My husband and his brother had a house together. When we married in 2002, my husband stopped making house payments. The agreement was if and when there was money in the house, my husband would receive some sort of payoff. The short of it is we will never see any money and we would never force his brother to move. We've just accepted that we are "walking away" from any equity compensation. We are in the process of losing our house and we are considering filing BK. We were hoping to file Chapter 7 however we were told that because we just removed my husband from the deed in Feb. 08 that the BK courts would go after the house. Is there any way around this? We were told by our attorney that we are forced to file Chapter 13 to protect the house (in which we'll never see a dime). One thought we had was could we draw up a agreement where his brother would pay us a small monthly payment plan? Does anyone know if this might be a way to file Chapter 7 without putting the house at risk? Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Deb:(

Just a quick clarification... We removed my husband's name from the deed (on the house with his brother) thinking that this would protect the house.

The money the brother is to pay ( the total of the amount) would have to fall under the allowance amount. It will be hard, since yes the court will view this as either income or property owned.

Thank you for your input. You mention it would be hard... not impossible though. Any ideas on how to proceed or should we just bit the bullet?

How did they get the house, is there a loan on it, and in whose name.
how much is owed on it, and what is the current appraised value.

The bought the house together in 1998, joint loan, joint title ownership. Feb 08 Hubby removed name via quit claim. Value at that time was approx. $400,000 and loan is approx. $305,00. Current Loan is in Brother's name only.