[STS68]

I had a land contract with someone in Pennsylvania. Last year, she breached that contract by not paying the mortgage directly to the mortgage company. I terminated the contract in February 2008 when the house went into foreclosure. I sued her in small claims court to try to recoup the losses which would have been applied to the loan, however, she filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy so the case was dismissed without prejudice. I filed a secured claim to collect the entire debt, however her lawyer wants to go to court to make my claim an unsecured amount of only what she "owes" because I lost the house in foreclosure due to her. I will also say, she was collecting rent from a sublease she had, and she apparently pocketed the money. What are my recourses with court to make her pay the entire amount since it was she who made the house go into foreclosure for nonpayment and subsequent filing of bankruptcy?

[Fr_Chuck]

Several real issues, no you lost your home because you did not make the payments, just like any rental or contracts you are liable to make the payments and keep track if they are not.

And you have to be able to afford to make the payments even if they are not paying.

They are only liable for the amount of the contract, the amount they breached. So if they lived there 3 or 4 months without making payments that is what they owe you plus any eviction costs, nothing more.

Also your debt is not secured, not sure how you are showing it is, they did not have a loan on the property, merely a contract for the deed. That is not secured, since you automatically take the home back when they breach.

So in my opinion you will only get the rental value for the time they were living in the house, and that will be paid as a unsecured debt.

I can not see any evidence you have presented to make this a secure debt.

You have merely showed a very poor contract for deed, and poor management allowing them to pay the debt direct. You as the owner of the property, should have been paid by them and you in turn pay the mortgage,
Plus after they did not pay, you were responsible to pay the debt

And to be honest her collecting money on a sub lease is legal, and unless this was in California there is nothing you can really do about it.