Submitted on Friday, June 4, 2021
With the expiration of eviction and foreclosure moratoriums on the horizon, notices are starting to appear in mailboxes across the nation. Panicked renters and homeowners are nervous about what is to come, and we are here to explain how the next few months may look for Americans in default.
good afternoon everybody and welcome to our facebook live presentation for this week um today we're going to talk about evictions foreclosures um utility shutoffs sheriff's sales uh landlord tenant court and these are things that we want to go over because we want to keep you updated as best we can about about these things and and all of them involve moratoriums that have been imposed in some cases by the federal government and uh generally by the state as well um and so let's eric did you want to start with utilities sure what i wanted to start though is to tell everybody that you see ours to show everybody that for the first time in 16 months of doing these jeff and i are wearing ties because we are recognizing that many of the covet 19 restrictions are being set aside and as a um and to allude to that you can be reminded that we are here open for business wearing ties and looking more and more like lawyers every day our offices are now unlocked and we are seeing people for appointments however if you'd prefer to see us from the safety and comfort of your home that's perfectly fine but jeff and i are up and ready and seeing people now in person if you're more if that's more convenient for you whatever you want we're here to help you okay we can talk about utilities i my notes said a landlord tenant but i can start with utilities so utilities are great because that's the easiest thing to understand okay before coding should we talk about uh yeah things are ending coming well because you're talking about everything jack and i think we'll start with you till it's because that's easy the most um the government has been focused on the moratorium to keep services on electric gas and water there's other utilities such as cable and telephone services that with um for educational purposes they haven't been able to shuttle wi-fi and the internet at your home but generally they can cable companies can shut off your cable except under those situations and and those type utilities but let's talk about water electric and gas electric and gas has been under a moratorium since covet 19 under the government governor murphy's special orders order of emergency which he has renewed every 30 days last we checked it's estimated that 62 000 or more people are behind materially behind with their electric and gases by people that's wrong households 62 000 households in new jersey are materially behind with their electric and gas and would ordinarily be subject to shut off the estimates as to how much money that's owed are in the or it's actually in the millions of dollars so as a result right now there have been no shutoffs jeff but what is the governor saying about shutoffs for utilities well it's the governor is saying um that i put you well no i know you know come the 30th of june of this year that moratorium on utility shutoffs is over and uh so that's three weeks from now so three and a half weeks and um the utility companies are required to give you some type of payment plan if you contact them but the point is just like it will be or the main point just like we'll be in all these other things that we're talking about is that this coveted thing is coming to an end we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and because things are opening up and people are getting shots and we don't have people uh getting the disease so much we don't have people dying as much as we did before the governor's loosened the restrictions and so all these things that have been done uh for a moratorium on uh uh evictions so if you're a landlord or a tenant you don't you don't have to pay your rent but it's going to come due eventually um if you have if you own a home and you have a mortgage there's been a moratorium on what the mortgage companies can do the governor has a moratorium on evictions um there's a moratorium on sheriff's sales and uh utility shutoffs like eric was saying and and we're coming to the end that's the big point we're coming to the end a lot of these things the the moratorium is supposed to be lifted at the end of june um but we'll talk about each one and what the what the date is so eric was talking about utilities the uh utility the moratorium on utility shutoffs is supposed to end on the 30th of june and that includes all utility shutoffs even the ones for cable internet where you have children who need those services for school still june 30 if they get shut off and i believe that utility companies are not supposed to be charging you a security deposit if you get your service turned back on but the money that you owe them is going to have to be repaid somehow and one um method and one theme that we will continue to talk to you about is if money is tight and you don't have two thousand dollars to give to atlantic city electric or public service electric or ga i guess or 10 000 or 10 000 at jersey city power and light you know the only time i ever saw a 10 000 utility bill jeff was someone who didn't have car insurance and they knocked down a telephone pole while driving i think i remember that person and as a result they were sued by one of the utility and they owed ten thousand dollars most part we don't generally say not numbers that not number's that high but regardless if it's if it's two thousand dollars and you don't have two thousand dollars it's a lot of money and what we see when we talk to our clients is it's not the utility bill that puts them into bankruptcy but it's all the bills including the utility bill so what happens with the utility bill is in most bankruptcies two things happen number one there's an automatic stay that stops the utility from shutting you off moratorium no more term they can't shut you off while you're in bankruptcy they give you a new account and you resume payments the next month and the second thing is your goal is to get a discharge as to that debt and many of the other debts and the discharge means you don't owe anyone any money so no we don't file bankruptcy for someone whose only bill is an 800 public service electric and gas bill but we do file bankruptcy for many people who owe jersey city power 800 because that just cleans everything up the key to a successful bankruptcy is to include all bills clean everything up so you can get fresh start and jeff that does remind me of your book because that is one of the things that you feature in your book um make bankruptcy work for you is that you want to include all your bills and we go through you go through in this book how we can help you by including all the bills how we can help you make sure you get all your bills to us get a fresh start if you call the number that's going to be flashed up on that screen right now and ask look at that that's pretty good production quality huh you ask for a copy of this book it'll be miranda or joe right now maybe robert he'll be picking up the phone ask for miranda tell her you want a book we'll give you a book and it's really worth it there's no obligation there's no charge for the book and it's chock-full can i do this with the screen it's real there's substance to this book so jeff that's the utility situation it can be included in a bankruptcy even if you owe for chopping down a telephone pole most of our clients all of our clients who do chapter seven if we get rid of the bill completely chapter 13 we may be able to get rid of the bill completely it'll be discharged but we'll keep your service on and that's that's uh to come home and not be able to turn on the lights when it gets not so bad in the summer i guess but not to be able to have the air conditioning on that can be bad in the summer but jeff there's more that's it's all evolving isn't it yes um when the um moratorium started as a result of code but everything was stopped but now as jeff explained earlier it's evolving it's moving forward that's why we're wearing ties again to work and one of the things what do you want to talk about next maybe the landlord situation or um you know sheriff's sales and uh addictions if you like let's talk about and and uh before i get into that the we don't we're bankruptcy attorneys and this is a bankruptcy firm and like eric said we've got our ties on because we're getting ready to start going back to court perhaps seeing clients more often in person although we're happy to talk to you from your home you know using the computer if you'd like and all these things were where utilities weren't paid rent wasn't paid the mortgage wasn't paid um whatever it it wasn't forgiven you still owe that money and bad things can happen if it's not paid and again um bankruptcy may be for you it may not be for you it's not necessarily a panacea but um if if you're behind on stuff it's it would be a good thing to check into anyway to call us we'll talk to you for free we'll go over your financial situation and maybe bankruptcy is the right thing for you to do because for for some things we can have a payment plan for mortgage we could have a payment plan if the mortgage company won't do something for you to repay the arrears resume making your normal payment same thing for a landlord-tenant situation if you're behind with your rent we can do the same thing for utilities like eric was saying we can probably eliminate whatever you owe on your utility bills and you just start off uh fresh with a new account yeah a new account and whatever service you use after the bankruptcies filed you'd have to pay for so um with this stuff coming to an end and the moratorium's coming to an end it's a good idea to call us or call bankruptcy attorney to see if this would be appropriate for you because like eric intimated if you're behind on utilities there might be a number of other things that you're behind on and i think a lot of people that we talked to have kind of been hanging on for a little more than a year and they don't have money set aside for whatever and um they have problems with more than just utilities right so evictions um the latest that we have word that we have from the governor and this and this is the governor the the federal government has done the same thing but we don't even need to pay attention to the federal government's moratorium on evictions because the state moratorium is more comprehensive and longer and um that's what we have to focus on so right now that's due to end on the 13th of august the moratorium on evictions uh started by the governor is supposed to end on the 13th of august now he might extend it a little bit more or he may not but as with all these things but i wouldn't expect any significant uh adjournments on these the end of the moratoriums um they're coming they're going to come to an end soon and what you've emphasized jeff is so right you have to pay rent if you want to stay there there's no landlord that we know of that's going to say well you've had a tough time these past three months six months nine months a year so you don't have to pay your rent just start over again no if you're behind with your rent due to the governor's orders you haven't been evicted period the debt hasn't been forgiven so you have two choices in the bankruptcy setting and we're bankruptcy attorneys you have two choices number one you file a bankruptcy to stop the eviction you move out and you don't owe anyone any money a fresh start and that's a chapter seven or number two you file bankruptcy you resume payments next month to your landlord and you make a new payment to a trustee on the back payments that's a chapter 13. if you are behind with your rent filing bankruptcy is a real it's the really a great option you can't go you can try to go to landlord tenant court you can try to negotiate with your landlords all sorts of things but we found it's very successful now for the numbers jeff according to this article i read through april 2021 seems awfully high 593 000 people are behind with their rent is that that can't be right that must be the i think it was 62 000 62 i think i might have put the uh the the comm in the wrong place i think i think in april of last year to april of 2020 there were 40 000 eviction actions pending and the governor's orders put just froze those and now uh as we sit here there are about 62 000 that have been filed that includes the ones that were filed before landlords haven't been filing them because they can't go anywhere with them there's no landlord tenant court according to the supreme court but we expect that to change um very shortly probably in the middle of august and so what how many actions can be filed right now it's going to be a big number you know if we've got 62 000 out there that have been filed and we do in new jersey um how many more are ready to be filed i flipped the numbers okay the article i read had 593 000 households behind with utilities in new jersey okay now that can be exaggerated because if you're one month behind you might just typically always be one month behind but they counted 593 000 families behind with utilities over 570 million dollars in utility payments have not been made and and then my numbers match jack there's over 62 000 landlord tenant complaints and what jeff emphasized here is landlords haven't been hiring their lawyers to file these complaints because they can't go anywhere so why have they been paying their lawyer to file these complaints they're just sitting on them once this moratorium's over there the landlord tenant courts in new jersey we predict based on our experience we've been doing this for 35 years there's going to be an inundated landlord tenant court situation in new jersey and i don't know how they're going to expedite them they're going to look at every case and decide whether you should be evicted if you haven't paid your rent and if you don't have a good plan to catch up file bankruptcy it'll stop the eviction and you can call that number once again jeff has i'm going to jeff's book again there's an entire chapter on landlord tenant um here and you can just take a look at it and read it and it's free and i forget what chapter number it is but it's right in there it's right about 15 or so take a look ask for the book read about landlord tenant in bankruptcy and how old how it will help you um but if you're behind with your rent you have to do something you have to yeah if you want to well if you want to stay there you certainly do if you're going to move on you're going to have a large debt that you owe that you need to get rid of somehow so bankruptcy like eric said can take care of either of those situations so we're talking about evictions um just a little bit more if evictions can can still happen in new jersey for commercial tenants or if the landlord feels that there's some type of emergency involved there's special paperwork the landlord has to fill out if he thinks there's an emergency and the court decides whether there is or isn't but generally evictions can't take place until the 13th of august which is not too far away a little over two months should we talk about i think we can do you wonder some people are behind with their mortgage how we can help them sure yeah um well the next thing would be foreclosures and um for the foreclosure situation as this uh covet business has has gone on has been um difficult to to figure out exactly what it is because uh fannie mae's doing something freddie mac's doing something fha is doing something what about the va what about the usda um it's it's so there are a couple different things going on but let me i can go through this very quickly if you have a fannie mae or freddie mac loan as of the 30th of june their moratorium on foreclosures is lifted so those types of loans can proceed with foreclosure on the 30th of june fha same thing no foreclosures until the 30th of june that's the end of the moratorium on fha foreclosures now in new jersey we have not only government-backed loans just like most states but we have loans that are not insured by the government and about 30 of the loans are not insured by the government there's never been a moratorium on their them proceeding with a foreclosure they just haven't wanted to because we can't have sheriff sales right now and they don't want their attorneys to have to be paying their attorneys to get the sheriff's sale adjourned every month until it can really happen i guess um that's what we've been told by our colleagues is the reason that they haven't gone ahead with foreclosure actions so um the the message is by the end of june all mortgages in new jersey can do foreclosures unless they change the datewhat does that mean well in new jersey the foreclosure process is a legal process you're served with a summons and complaint and if there's one and that's an is is different than other states where it's not necessarily legal uh as far as going through the law um going through lawyers and summons and complaints but it is in new jersey and that's a point of emphasis that jeff and i have made during the course of these facebook live presentations if you are served with a summons and complaint you must call a lawyer the mortgage companies hiring a lawyer you need to hire a lawyer and it's something worth speaking to us about because if it's gotten to the point that the mortgage companies hired a lawyer to do a summons and complaint you need to stop it again it's just like landlord tenant there's two ways through the bankruptcy process we can stop it number one is the simpler way the chapter seven you've decided you just can't afford the house you don't want the house there's no equity in the house you want to move but you want to make sure you don't owe the mortgage company any more money you typically we can't say that until we speak to you but in many cases you would then qualify for a chapter seven we would stop the sheriff's sale to allow you stop the foreclosure stop the sheriff's sale to allow you a longer opportunity to live in the house then you'd move out and not owe anybody any more money the second avenue is you want to keep the house you've fallen behind it's understandable as a result of covet it's understandable as a result of what's happened to our economy you've fallen behind you want to keep the house we file a chapter 13 in a chapter 13 typically and again it's a case-by-case basis we'll speak to you we'll take our time we'll take your time we'll figure this out typically you'd resume regular monthly payments directly to the mortgage company and make a new payment to the trustee over five years to catch up with the mortgage and the law is designed in those chapter 13 cases to treat the credit cards and the medical bills and all that stuff differently so that you can afford to pay your mortgage and afford to pay the trust day over that five year period does it work jeff does it work absolutely we save houses for people all the time it's remarkable really people come into this office i tried to get a saying like you come and cry and you walk out smiling i don't know if that's a great slogan but and it may not literally be true all the time but people you feel relief after you speak to us about these situations these are serious stuff yeah you're losing your house your lights are being shut off um and then we didn't even talk about people that wage garnishments and all these things are happening it's tough and we can offer you some solutions that's right absolutely a couple things that we haven't really talked about well i talked about evictions a little bit um sheriff's sales right now we don't know we're assuming that it's going to be the middle of august would be the end of the moratorium on sheriff sales we've talked to the sheriff's offices they're conducting sheriff's sales for commercial properties or properties that are vacant they're allowed to do that but not for residential mortgages right now but we think that that's going to be over with in the middle of august and the evictions uh we we talked about when the deadline was uh when the moratorium was going to end for evictions on the 13th of august right so again if you receive the summons and complaint and foreclosure or eviction call us if you're behind with your rent or behind with your mortgage call us it's a free telephone consultation we can help you from the safety and comfort of your home you can come in to see us and minimally start by asking for a copy of jeff's block it's very very helpful much better this is they say i look the best on facebook right now jeff yeah so i think that's about it for this afternoon i think i hope we gave you some good information um this stuff is hard to figure out we get on the computer and try to find the latest thing that the government put or the governor put out the um the latest thing that's come out from the federal government it's not always easy to figure out but we try to do that and let you know what we found so um we'll resume next week at two o'clock we'll have another facebook live episode then and until then stay safe and god bless