I’ve always been reluctant to accept a bankruptcy case where the Debtors have a reverse mortgage. When I review the paperwork involved with the reverse mortgage, it looks to me as if the homeowners are transferring a bit of the ownership of their home to the mortgage company every month. I have always wondered if that would be considered a fraudulent transfer by a bankruptcy trustee.
Now today I’ve learned, perhaps a bit late, that a New Jersey court is saying that the payments from a reverse mortgage can be garnished by creditors. That’s an idea I never thought of, but I am concerned that it might catch on. In a bankruptcy context this could mean that if a person with a reverse mortgage was to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the bankruptcy trustee would be able to seize all the remaining payments on the reverse mortgage. The trustee could keep the file open and collect the money from the reverse mortage until all the unsecured debts and all the administrative expenses were paid. This is a frightening prospect.
When I see those TV commercials for reverse mortgages I cringe. Seems to me that the advertising is misleading. The folks I’ve met who have reverse mortgages don’t seem to have much of an understanding of what they got themselves into.
