How long does trustee have?

[Vandervecken]

Good morning! I had my 341 meeting last month; during the meeting the trustee could not determine how much equity was available in my rental property and continued the meeting. The continuation was yesterday during the block of time trustee holds his weekly 341 meetings. My attorney instructed me not to attend, and in fact her paralegal told me later than my case did not come up. As of now my case still shows "Awaiting First Meeting" and "Awaiting Trustee's Report". The case has been in that status for almost 80 days now, although I understand the holidays will impact this some. The "objections to discharge" date is still set for 60 days after the first 341 meeting, and has not changed.

My question: is there a deadline as to when the trustee has to make a decision and file his report?

Thanks!

[leonel9]

I don't know the answer regarding deadlines, but I do wonder: How you provided the trustee the information he or she would need to determine the equity? In my case, I (grudgingly) paid for an appraisal, provided statements showing mortgage balances/liens as of the filing date. My attorney wrote an offer letter calculating the available equity and applicable exemptions, and submitted an offer to "buy out" the equity. Have you done something similar? If not, could that eliminate the delay?

[Vandervecken]

In my district, the trustee uses the tax appraisal value (which is good for me) minus the balance of any mortgage. Mine is more complicated in that the properties are titled under an LLC, and we're valuing the LLC as a whole. One house has no equity, one house has equity, and besides the mortgages there is a loan with security interest for tools. With these factors, plus the issues of removing the tenants (who have long-term leases), the requirement that my ex-wife (whose name is on the mortgages) not have her credit damaged and then the real estate selling costs, the hope is that the trustee will just abandon interest.

Right now my attorney is recommended waiting. The trustee is known to be very fair, but is careful and takes time to get the detail right.

[leonel9]

So on that note -- does anyone know the answer to Vandervecken's question? Is there a limit the trustee has, or can he/she continue indefinitely? In the event resolution takes too long, what does a debtor do -- file a motion for ____________ ?

[justbroke]

When it comes to the administration of "assets", the Trustee can take as much time as necessary. Some asset cases have gone as much as 2 years. What you're REALLY waiting on, however, is the discharge. The discharge will come as quickly as possible following the 60-days after the FIRST SCHEDULED 341 Meeting. I put that in bold caps because it is not dependent on a continued 341 Meeting.

If it has been months (don't ask me how many but could be > 6 months) waiting for the Trustee to decide whether to abandon an asset or to liquidate it as part of the estate, the debtor (or the debtor's attorney) could file a Motion to Compel Turnover. That may not work if the Trustee tells the judge that they are still working on it and that work is "reasonable" (don't ask me what defines reasonable but see my comment about some limited asset cases taking 2 years).

justbroke's study guide: the reason a Trustee may keep continuing a 341 Meeting really comes down to if the Trustee had "concluded" the meeting. If the Trustee had concluded the meeting, they would have started another clock related to how long they have to object to any claims of exemption.

[Vandervecken]

Thanks, JB!

Based on what you're saying, I'm a little of 30 days past the initial 341 meeting now, so I'm halfway along. Yay!!!!! But it's hard to be patient. As I've mentioned in another thread, there''s just one asset that was not exempted, and the means test is pretty straightforward. I wish the trustee would hurry, but I expect we won't get the answer until the last minute.