Fraudulent Transfers and Assets Questions

[epiphany]

It is highly unlikely that a trustee would come to your home, although there was a post from one member who said that the trustee had come to his home and peered in the window, so knew about his mountain bikes. That is a rarity.

The personal PC can be exempted the same way any other items can be expempted...depends on how much your state allows. However, I question the value of your PC. PCs depreciate rapidly and a 2005 PC, which was home built, is probably not worth much to anyone other than yourself. I love my PC, but it is a 2003 HP and I doubt that I could get more than 100 dollars for it, even including the speakers, keyboard and monitor.

If you find you are over the exemptions, you may have to pick and choose what to keep...small price to pay for the financial freedom will reap in a successful Chapter 7.

You do not have to declare property that is not yours. Your laptops do not belong to you and you are not required to report them.

For more information that may be able to set your mind at ease, use the search feature on this forum to find the answers to the questions that are most important to you. You will find tons of info if you do your homework.

Good luck,
ep

[lrprn]

You are making this much harder than it has to be. Most US households have belongings worth a total resale value of $2-4000 - that's it. Any computer more than two years old is almost worthless for resale - check your local want ads for comparable setups - but I promise whatever you have isn't worth $1,500 - closer to $250 maybe.

And as far as any trustee inspection, how do those work? Do they show up randomly on your doorstep when you least expect it or does my attorney learn of a possible encounter and call to schedule it?

Trustees don't come to your home. The only time a very rare home visit may be done by someone the trustee has hired to assess your belongings is if the trustee has good reason to suspect you are hiding valuable assets (furs, jewelry, art, cars) in your home that you haven't included in your filing. You won't know this visit is going to happen - it would kind of defeat the purpose catching you in bankruptcy fraud if they announced the date/time of the visit so you could hide the offending itmes, wouldn't it?

If you haven't hidden anything and there's nothing suspicious about your filing, the trustee goes by what is listed on your forms.

As long as you've been truthful and aren't hiding assets, you have nothing to worry about. Strike this particular worry off your list

[deafbroke]

If you paid cash for the guitar you could have a friend hamg onto it.

db

[Cali]

That would be creepy, trustee looking through your windows. My neighbors would swear it was someone trying to steal something. LOL

It is highly unlikely that a trustee would come to your home, although there was a post from one member who said that the trustee had come to his home and peered in the window, so knew about his mountain bikes. That is a rarity.

[TomBrady]

First you need to say which state you are from in order for anybody to know what the exemptions are.

Secondly I have a hard time believe that a computer built 4yrs ago would be worth 1300 now, and so would your trustee.

Thirdly the very worst thing you can do is to not be honest on all of this stuff that can get you in real trouble.

When I filled out my forms for categories I just made up numbers that seemed reasonable most of our clothes are from 2nd hand stores and such and how the heck do you price that stuff? All of our furniture was given to us by people who no longer wanted it (yes its really that bad). I put a a number down anyway, look to your exemptions for guidelines and try to shoot for the median.

Lastly trust your lawyer to keep you from doing something stupid, when you fill out the forms and you put a number thats way to low or way to high he will talk to you about them and adjust them to something that wont raise red flags, that is why you are paying them. If all they did was transfer what you wrote down from the paper your filling out to the the bankruptcy papers you can hire a service to do this for about $150.

TRUST YOUR LAWYER, they know what they are doing tell them everything. From what I read here I dont see anything that you would have a major problem keeping (depending on the value of the music equipment).

Trust me though the trustees have heard the I sold it to my friend trick before, and they can reverse the deal in which the friend has to return the goods and you have to return their money.

Anyway just my 2 cents...

[Mostage]

Nice! It sounds like I don't have too much to worry over. Like I mentioned, the huge assets I have are scheduled under DEBT and there's not much I have worth very much mpre than a grand or so.

You're all right about the computer. When I bought the parts with my credit card, it totalled around $1,500 at the time and I totally understand how the value depreciates as computer equipment is ever-advancing.

I did actually mention in one of my previous posts that my state was Arizona.

I have to admit the paperwork is really difficult in filling out. One thing I'm doing is listing the various items (debts, assets, monthly bills, etc.) on respective Excel sheets since the forms don't have very much room to provide explanations, list all items and such. Sure is taking awhile as well, getting everything put together.

Anyway, I totally appreciate everyone's responses and input. I have nothing along the lines of the cases described previously! I just want to get past this and move on, you know! I am an honest, white (HA!), tax-paying hard working american who got shafted with a string of unfortunate events after making it to a very comfortable position who is under a mountain of debt. It's unfortunate to hear that there are those (as mentioned above) who REALLY take advantage of the system and create difficulty, and near-impossibility, to live the American dream!

Thanks a TON!!!

M