Legal Solutions for You,
Your Family & Your Business

Timing Your Filing

Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of deciding when to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If your wages are about to be attached or your car repossessed, you’ll most likely file as soon as possible. However, if there’s no emergency, it sometimes helps to wait until your filing has the best possible effect on delaying your foreclosure sale.

For example, if you are in California, which has a 90-day notice of default period before a foreclosure sale can be scheduled, you will get more delay out of filing after the 90-day period has expired than if you filed during that period. That’s because filing for bankruptcy doesn’t stop the 90-day notice period from running; it delays only the actual sale. So if you file after the sale has been scheduled, you can put off the sale for months. But if you file during the notice period, all or part of your bankruptcy will be pending while the notice period is running, and the bankruptcy will have little or no delaying effect during that period.