My husband and I both filed bankruptcy on the same day. Today, 5 days later we were informed that CRA filed a lien against our property on the very same day we filed (signed the papers). They had already placed a registered lien against my husband for his personal assets but nothing against me or our home which is in both names. We live in Ontario and are aware that Real Estate is not on the allowed list of exemptions, however we still did a property or title search the day before we filed bankruptcy and the CCRA was not listed as a secured lien holder. My question is..where do we stand now with this new lien registered against our property which has no equity. We’ve only had our home for one year.
Today 02/11/2012
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This is a question you should discuss in detail with your trustee, since there are a number of issues to consider (and without all of the details of your file I cannot give you a complete answer).
The first issue is whether or not your bankruptcy became effective before or after CRA registered their lien. I assume your trustee filed your bankruptcy electronically, which means the certificate of appointment will have both a date and a time. If you or your lawyer can prove that the bankruptcy started before the lien was registered, the lien can be removed.
The other issue is that, if your home has no equity, and if the CRA lien is valid, there may be no point in keeping your house. You will end up paying off the mortgage over the next few years, which only serves to increase the value of CRA’s lien. It therefore may be in your best interest to simply surrender the house to the mortgage holder or CRA, and get a fresh start that way.
The final option will be to negotiate with CRA to fix the amount of the lien, so that you can make payment arrangements directly with them.
Again, your trustee can walk you through this process in more detail, since your trustee has probably negotiated similar deals with CRA on previous occasions.