Will stripped liens be taken off my record after a Chapter 7? 17 Answers as of July 30, 2011

Strip is usually not effective until chapter 13 discharge, so it seems you are out of luck, the lien remains.

If by lien "strip" you mean a lien avoidance, that only occurs once you get a court order avoiding the lien which you can record with the county recorder. Usually this only occurs at the end of the case after you have completed all required plan payments and are ready for discharge. If your case was converted, I doubt there ever was a lien avoidance. Technically, a lien "strip" is merely a valuation of a lien into secured and unsecured portions for purposes of payment of claim in a Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 case, but removal of the lienas indicated abovecan only occur by a court order that gets recorded with the country recorder.

Real estate liens are subject to being disclosed on the public record. Stripping a lien in chapter 13 does not alter the public record as it stands.

Generally a lien cannot be stripped in Ch 7 even when converted from a Ch 13, any lien strip I have seen requires that you successfully complete the Ch 13.

Lien strip is conditional upon completion of the Chapter 13. If converted to a Chapter 7, the lien is not stripped. Otherwise, everyone would file Chapter 13s, strip the lien and immediately convert to Chapter 7.

This is a question for your bankruptcy lawyer. If a lien was stripped in 13 then it was stripped and cannot survive in conversion to chapter 7. What is done is done. However you may need to get a certified copy of the court order stripping the lien and file that in the deed records to clear up the title.

If the lien was stripped, then a copy of the order stripping the lien should be recorded with the county recorder's office.

If you stripped a lien in a Chapter 13 filing and then converted the case to a Chapter 7 before receiving your Chapter 13 discharge, the liens are NOT stripped. They are revived when you convert. They only get removed from the property if you successfully complete your Chapter 13 case.

If you do not obtain a Chapter 13 discharge (or at least complete the plan payments in some jurisdictions) the lien will not be stripped. If it was voided then the bank can have the court reinstate the lien. I am assuming you are referring to a voluntary lien such as a second deed of trust or mortgage and not an involuntary lien such as a judgment lien that can also be stripped in Chapter 7.

It sounds like you screwed up and did this without a lawyer. Your mistake cannot be fixed. The lien strip is only valid if you stayed in a chapter 13. By converting to a 7, the lien remains. Had you used a lawyer you would have known that and might have made a different decision about losing that benefit from a 13.