Stepfather Was Served Court Papers Over A Short-sale On A House He No Longer Lives In And Threat Of Having To Pay Off The Debt Despite It Being Over 15 Years Ago.

I am at a point where I have turned to this subreddit for some advice, especially because my parents have been extremely stressed over the situation. My stepdad had a house that he lived in for maybe two years before he did a short-sale on it and has no longer since lived in that house. When he went to file for the short-sale apparently after he signed it said that he would make up the rest of the money that was not paid, however, he did not know that that's what was written and English is not his language. I hope I understood that correctly when I first heard about it. Despite having an attorney that does speak the language all he told him not to worry about it anymore. Now after 15 years back in October he was served some court papers, where he is being sued over this short-sale where he would have to pay around $111,000. According to my stepdad it was some cop that handed him the papers, who did not look at all well kept.

Honestly we would have ignored it because my stepdads friends who had some knowledge in this sort of thing told him to ignore it. The whole situation seemed really suspicious. It wasn't until my stepdad went to file a bankruptcy for his small business, where the lawyer noticed the papers he was served and told him that it was really important he needs to do something about it. We ended up going to an attorney that we knew of in order to file a bankruptcy for that debt. Mind you the court date wasn't until in January. However, he told us that it was a."done deal" that we are going to have to pay something for this debt. What he told us is that by filing for the bankruptcy we could knock that 111,000 to around 63,000. Which is still a huge amount of money that my stepdad can't pay. The thing is it was really weird that he started looking at the home value of my parents home that they are currently living in because what does the house have anything to do with the house that my stepdad used to in? At first he said it would be a good idea to refinance in order to knock the monthly mortgage a little bit lower so that my stepdad could be able to manage paying off the debt. Then he told us if he failed to pay the debt then the trustee would put a lien on the home. It feels like it was just one thing after another.

It really doesn't help that the lawyer who we are working with after we finished speaking with the attorney at one point stopped picking up my stepdads calls or not getting back to his text messages.

The lawyer sent over a document for my stepdad to sign that would pretty be an agreement that he would pay that debt that he agrees with the payment plan to pay off this debt. He didn't sign it because there was no way he could actually pay it off. Mind you they were asking for over $1200 a month over the next 4-5 years add that with the mortgage and other things he has to pay it is way more than he earns.

My parents went to court on the day that it was stated in the papers. The judge said it was dismissed but apparently did not specific if it was with or without prejudice. Now my stepdad is trying to file a motion to stop the bankruptcy. The lawyer hasn't filed it yet despite having met with her a week ago. I am not 100% sure why my parents want to file the motion, but I know that they do not want to deal with this specific lawyer anymore and want to go with someone else. My mom ended up finding another lawyer that was recommended to her by her employer, but nothing has really come of it just yet.

I guess I just want to know what are the chances of my stepdad actually having to pay this debt? What is something to expect? What is something we can do?

I hope my explanation is understandable. It has been a stressful few months and I just really want to find some answers for my parents. Thank you!