Saving Your House: Mortgage Business Loans

I speak with many small business owners who have weathered tough financial struggles in their businesses and need some sort of relief. Inevitably, at least one business loan has insisted on a second mortgage against their house. This becomes problematic if the business person is forced into bankruptcy as a last resort and also wants to keep his or her residence. There are two possible sources of relief, only one of which do I address in this post and I am not going to touch on a Chapter 11 at all because that is nearly always to expensive for a small business.

11 USC Section 1322 provides for what one can and cannot do in a Chapter 13 plan. Section 1322(b)(2) basically says that you cannot modify a debt secured against one’s personal residence. However, that debt can ONLY be secured against one’s home to have this protection. In most cases, a business loans secured against the debtor’s personal residence is also secured against some other property, such as a building owned by the business or the assets and inventory of the business. These loans can be modified.

So, a business owner who wants to save their house can go into a Chapter 13 and “cram down” the principal of that business loan to the value of available equity in that home. The rest of the loan becomes unsecured and subject to discharge at the completion of the Chapter 13. If there is no equity, then the loan becomes wholly unsecured.

My usual caveat here: each particular debtors circumstance can impact whether or not the approach I am referencing would work. One should consult with a knowledgeable bankrutpcy attorney to determine whether all the details line up becuase navigating the bankruptcy code can be rather complex.