The plot thickens, advice please!

[zem930]

Ok so here is my situation(breif)

Roughly $35,000 of CC debt
1 Forclosed property that has been sold already

Initially I was going to do a chapter7. I come to find out that my father(unknown to me) has a stock account in my name worth about $21,000.
After finding this out and talking to my lawyer she says I have to go with a chapter 13 and start a payment plan based off of the $21,000. I want to keep this a chapter 7. I was more than willing to settle with the CC companies that's not my issue. It's the foreclosure that scares me.

My 3 questions are this:

1.) Im told that if I sell the stock it will come up as fraud if I declare BK. Is this true and common for them to come after me? What are the penalties if I do this?

2.) If I was to delay the BK and sell my stocks now. How long would I have to wait before it looks intentional. does this even make sense???

3.) Like I said earlier im willing to settle with the CC companies. Is there any other thing i can do besides a BK to get ride of my forclosure situation???

Thank you for all advice!

[keepinitreal]

If you don't care about the stock, you can file Chapter 7 now. The stock will become property of the estate, the trustee will sell the stock, take his cut, and divide up the rest among your creditors.

Or you can sell the stock, pay your attorney with the money, protect as much of the cash with your exemptions as you can, and file Chapter 7.

[NoTomatoCan]

1 Forclosed property that has been sold already

3.) Like I said earlier im willing to settle with the CC companies. Is there any other thing i can do besides a BK to get ride of my forclosure situation???

What do you mean by "get rid of my foreclosure situation?" Are you trying to save your house? Is there a deficiency after the property sold that you are worried about?

[zem930]

I had a property that I was trying to short sell and it was forclosed on. So the forclosure already happened. Im scared that somewhere down the line my wages will be garnished or i will be sued...

[researchnerd]

The only reason they could come after you is if there's a deficiency on the foreclosure sale. Do you know how much it sold for, and whether it was less than you owed? What state are you in? Some states don't allow deficiency judgments, others have a specific time period in which they must be filed.

If there's no deficiency, I'd sell the stock and settle with the CCs. BK should be an absolute last resort.

[newbie2]

You can still file for bankruptcy, either a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 and rid yourself of the mortgage deficiency balance. That isn't the issue. The issue is you have money in stocks that could be sold by the trustee to pay to your unsecured creditors. Find out how much cash is exempt in your state and go from there on your decision.

Edited to add: You don't tell us what state you are in, but there are a couple of them that are "non-recourse" states as far as your mortgage deficiency. Ask your attorney about this.

[NoTomatoCan]

Ditto what researchnerd just said.

The foreclosure by itself isn't what you would get sued over. It all depends on if there was a deficiency and whether your state allows for deficiency judgments.

[zem930]

Hmmmm I need to look into this!

Im about 99.9% sure it sold for over $100K less than I paid for the property. I live in Florida btw.

[researchnerd]

If that means 100k less than you owed...then yes, that would be a good reason to file BK. FL does allow deficiency judgments, but I don't know whether there's a time limit on them - here's a place to start investigating. Do you have an attorney? If not, a free consultation with a BK attorney or two wouldn't hurt.

[zem930]

^^^ I do have an attorney. I just want to make 100% certain that I take the best route possible. The information here is great thank you everyone so much!!!

Now let's say I sold the stock..... How long before it looks fishy to file or is this just a 100% no no.

[SMinGA]

Selling the stock is not a problem, as long as you get fair market value for it. Selling an asset for 1/2 of what its worth to a friend, on the other hand, would be a problem.

After selling it - you would want to protect as much of it as possible by spending it on exempt items, necessary expenses. Home repair, medical/dental needs you may have put off, etc. Don't give it away, don't repay family/friends if you owe them $.

Edit-See you're in FL. Not very generous on exemptions. Might be hard to spend down that much.

Have you lived there for 2+ years?