341 is tomorrow at 11am Manchester NH

[StartinOver]

I am headed home from work a little early today, to prepare a binder ala disconapper so I won't be fumbling for my documents if the trustee asks anything. I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Even though I know the 341 is a good thing in our straightforward no asset chapter 7, I'm not certain my frame of mind afterwards would be appropriate for dealing with the public, and I had the PTO available so I'm taking it.

Will post something tomorrow afterwards about how it went.

We are below median income, waving the white flag and surrendering our beautiful but upside down house and have already started to reconstruct our financial life beginning with a budget that includes savings. I'm going to ceremonially open an actual savings account at my local bank where my checking account is when I get out of the 341 and putting the first deposit in it to start our emergency fund.

[disconapper]

Good luck to you and thanks for the shout out! I'm very proud of my lil' red binder. LOL!

I'm sure it will go very well, keep us posted!

[StartinOver]

Cue Staples Button Press: "That was easy!"

We arrived, with my big binder of documents on the 7th floor of 1000 Elm St, in Manchester, about 40 minutes earlier than our hearing, so we could listen to the cases in the 10:30 docket. Most people were dressed in business casual, and some of the ladies (myself included) appeared to be dressed in something they'd wear to the office or to church. There were a few that were dressed in matching shorts and cute tops and sandals (notably one woman with a 3 month old infant napping in his baby carrier), but most were appropriately and respectfully attired in more businesslike choices and I didn't see any outlandishly inappropriate attire. This Trustee proceeded through cases at a rapid fire pace. After swearing people in, and verifying their SS#, she asked a handful of questions general and specific to their cases, and the answers were barely out of people's mouths before she was asking her next question.

There was one item that failed to make it onto our petition (on the last editing go around with the attorney's office I asked for the set of china I'm holding for my niece to be removed from "property transferred" and placed in "property held for others." It got taken out of the transferred section, but never made it onto the "held for others." So when asked if the petition was complete, I stated that there is a set of china belonging to my niece being held at our home for her that should be noted there. Trustee asked no questions about that.

She asked most people first, why they filed for BK, but she did not ask us this question.
Here's what she did ask:

Q: Have you owned any other property other than the home listed in the petition?
A: In the mid 80's I owned a home with my first husband, which was deeded in lieu back to the bank in '89.

Q: Does anyone owe you money?
A: Yes, the former contractor noted in the petition, but we didn't anticipate ever collecting it, he says he's on welfare now.

Q: Are the tax returns provided previously, correct copies of your most recent filings?
A: Yes.

Q: Are all your creditors listed in your petition?
A: Yes.

Q: Are all your assets listed?
A: Yes

Q: Do you own any other vehicles?
A: No

Q: Are we involved in any litigation?
A: No

Q: Have we ever filed bankruptcy before?
A: No

After we answered those questions, she asked the room "Is there anyone with questions for these debtors?" and before the last word of the question had been heard she continued, "There being none, this is adjourned," and we were out of there. Don't think we were 6 minutes in the chairs! Oh and I totally didn't need the document binder, but I was glad to have it in case I did. There were a couple people ahead of us that were asked for documents about a business that had failed (this was a consumer bankruptcy, but his source of income had been an LLC) and they did not have the documents with them.


Our attorney says we can safely begin doing whatever we need to with regard to getting rid of stuff and so forth.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to have a do over... and ever so grateful for this forum, that has been so helpful and supportive.

[IamOld]

Best wishes to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[disconapper]

YAY! Congrats! I'm glad it went well! Welcome to the 60-day club. Myself, you and a few others should all be celebrating our discharges within a few days of each other!

[StartinOver]

Update - see last item in my sig, which I just now figured out how to create! Yay, no distribution! We have decided that we are going to take charge of the situation with the foreclosure on the house, too. Tomorrow I will call the attorney who represents the bank and ask some questions to determine their timeline and see if I can negotiate a nice cash for keys if we get out during the summer, so they can sell this lovely lake house while it still looks great because of my gardens. (The can send in a clean up crew for the parts of the yard I hadn't got to, but we'll leave it clean and lovely, so I can remember it as it was and is supposed to be.)

We already contacted one landlord and will go see an apartment Saturday. With our dog and our bird we know it could be an uphill battle to find a suitable place and we are not going to let this misfortunate mess bust up our little family so we're being proactive and trying to sort this out before it gets really bad. ON the other hand, if the bank isn't going to move fast, we'll stay... but I suspect this bank is moving fast. They do everything else fast!