Bankruptcy

• Bankruptcy comes in different forms, such as a Chapter 7, which discharges your debts, and Chapter 13, which restructures your debts into a payment plan spread across many years. When filing bankruptcy, the debtor gains an automatic protection against litigation and other collection efforts.
  
  

Eviction

• The act of eviction often follows a court order the landlord receives from a district court. The eviction process cannot immediately start if the tenant misses a payment. The landlord has to wait through any payment grace period stipulated in the lease. He then sends the tenant a notice to quit. This terminates the lease unless the tenant can pay the back rent by the time the notice period ends. A landlord may evict a tenant for other reasons, but if the eviction does not deal with tenant debt, it doesn't involve bankruptcy.
  
  

Process

• The eviction process begins once the termination notice expires and the tenant does not leave the home. The exact timeline depends on factors such as the state in which the eviction takes place and the court schedule. The eviction process generally takes one hearing and one additional filing on the part of the landlord if the tenant stays in the home after the court issues its order.
  
  

Timing

• A tenant can delay the eviction process as long as he files the bankruptcy prior to a court order in the eviction case. A bankruptcy filing afterward does nothing to stop the physical eviction. At that point, the court has spoken and the case is no longer in litigation. Additionally, a bankruptcy does not permanently stop an eviction. Instead, it only delays it until the landlord can get the stay lifted from the eviction process.