Bankruptcy

Include your home for what?

with the new bankruptcy laws you are still liable to repay all old debts.

Yes, you can file a chapter 7 bankruptcy as long as you have not filed within the past 8 years and your income qualifies for a Chapter 7. If your house has been foreclosed on, you can list the mortgage company's deficiency amount in the petition and they would be treated like any other unsecured creditor. However, if the house has not gone through a foreclosure yet, you can still file the bankruptcy, but the house will not come out of your name until the house is sold at a sheriff's auction. A bankruptcy will not take a house out of your name. Also, I get a lot of people ask me if they can get rid of the mortgage, yet still keep the house. The answer is no. You typically cannot get rid of a secured debt without surrendering the property first.

By the way, the first response posted is untrue. I am a bankruptcy paralegal and have been for the past 10 years. The new bankruptcy code, under Chapter 7, does NOT make you liable for old past debts. That is a common myth.