Need Help Please

[MidwestGuy]

I'll try to make short story long. My old car was in shop for over 2 weeks to get its trans rebuild/new. Along that I requested shop to do some other minor fixes that car needed. Tonight, shop calls me to tell me that everything was fixed but when they took it on a test drive, engine blew up.

Now, my deadline for objections of CH7 is in June. This car was nor included in BK. My question is, can I call my lawyer and have this car included in BK now ? Car is worth about 3k and I owe about 3.5k on it. Service on it will run me about 2000 not including the motor that I would need. Obviously I do not want to spend any more money on it. I might as well just go get a another car thats in better condition. So what do you guys think about this situation, and can anything be done at this point ? Thanks for any help.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

MidwestGuy, add this creditor to your matrix TODAY, dude. You are so lucky your engine blew up before your bk was discharged!

By the way, there is no such thing as "this loan was not included in bk": ALL of your debts are included, whether you choose to keep them or not. You can't just leave one off. You have to include it, and then if you want to keep the assset (car, house, whatever) you sign a reaffirmation or see if you can do a ride-through (sign nothing but continue making payments). Not including a debt in your original filing can negatively affect you in the future, so if there are any other creditors you left off, you might want to *seriously* consider adding them now. There's a $26 fee to add creditors after you've filed, so add them all at once so you only have to pay the fee once. But seriously, it's worth it. Legally, you cannot withhold ANY debt from a Chapter 7 filing: you have to disclose them ALL, no matter what your intention toward that creditor is.

Good luck!!!

[JRScott]

Did you sign a reaffirmation agreement yet?

If so you need to contact your lawyer and see what can be done about withdrawing it.

Otherwise as Daisy says all loans/debts must be included. So I'd go back and adjust and list the debt, even if it delays discharge it's worth it. The bad part is that you'd still probably have to pay the garage bill since it was accrued after the bk filing.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

JrScott, true enough about that garage bill... bk won't help that, I'm afraid. Just the car note. Good catch!

[MidwestGuy]

Alright, thanks to everyone for your input. My attorney was asking me if I wanted to keep the car so she can send the reaffirm letter to the creditor but I haven't talked to her yet. I will call her tomorrow and add this creditor to the list (it's already added, but I wont keep the car).

I'm to the point where I don't even want to pay for services that are done to my transmission as I think they did something wrong and caused engine to fail. But if I don't pay them I can't get the car back. Wonder if I can direct the creditor to their garage just to pick the car up from them, but I do not want to get in any legal trouble with the service shop.

[JRScott]

It is possible they did do something that caused it, proving it might be hard. I would call your lawyer and explain what happened and make sure they understand you don't want to reaffirm but want to surrender. They might have some knowledge or know someone that can help you out with the garage deal.

[CindyLou]

Alright, thanks to everyone for your input. My attorney was asking me if I wanted to keep the car so she can send the reaffirm letter to the creditor but I haven't talked to her yet. I will call her tomorrow and add this creditor to the list (it's already added, but I wont keep the car).

I'm to the point where I don't even want to pay for services that are done to my transmission as I think they did something wrong and caused engine to fail. But if I don't pay them I can't get the car back. Wonder if I can direct the creditor to their garage just to pick the car up from them, but I do not want to get in any legal trouble with the service shop.

If you are letting the car go in the BK and it does not run, then who cares if you get it back, however, you did incur the debt for the work they performed after the BK, so they could take legal action against you if you abandon the car there.