Should I be Proactive & Call Trustee or Sit Tight (HHM?)

[danaf]

I filed solo in community property state (ch7, no asset). Newly married, debt in my name only & 99% from before marriage. Trustee asked if my husband owned anything, which he does but nothing worth much and owned before marriage or inherited - so all his sole & separate property. She asked me to send her an accounting which I did.

My 341 was beginning of July. To date - nothing has been entered in pacer and of course I'm a little worried.

Should I be proactive and call trustee's office about this or continue to sit tight? I was thinking I could ask to make sure they received paperwork, if they need anything else, & if I need to amend my schedules to include his items?

(the thing is - in the directions I have from my state's website - it says that if your spouse does not file to include all community property which I did. No where does it say anything about including a non-filing spouses separate property. I only used exemptions for me. I also want to ask her office if I am to include his sole & separate property in my schedules, then can I use exemptions for 2 people).

[AngelinaCat]

Did you use a lawyer? If you did, I doubt the Trustee's office will talk to you. I understand very well you wanting to have your questions answered. We have questions we want answered too, which our attorney is doing absolutely nothing about. So until we can get rid of her, we can't talk to the Trustee.

Good luck.

[Help!]

My 341 was beginning of July. To date - nothing has been entered in pacer and of course I'm a little worried.

In PACER on the schedule does it show your 341 as "satisfied", "terminated" or neither?? Is the status "awaiting discharge" or still "awaiting meeting of creditors"? Or do you mean the trustee hasn't filed the standard statement declaring that it's a no asset case?

[southernbelle]

I filed solo in community property state (ch7, no asset). Newly married, debt in my name only & 99% from before marriage. Trustee asked if my husband owned anything, which he does but nothing worth much and owned before marriage or inherited - so all his sole & separate property. She asked me to send her an accounting which I did.

My 341 was beginning of July. To date - nothing has been entered in pacer and of course I'm a little worried.

Should I be proactive and call trustee's office about this or continue to sit tight? I was thinking I could ask to make sure they received paperwork, if they need anything else, & if I need to amend my schedules to include his items?

(the thing is - in the directions I have from my state's website - it says that if your spouse does not file to include all community property which I did. No where does it say anything about including a non-filing spouses separate property. I only used exemptions for me. I also want to ask her office if I am to include his sole & separate property in my schedules, then can I use exemptions for 2 people).

Just a quick question. Would you have to include his items owned before the marriage if he isn't filing BK with you? I guess I don't understand the difference between state and federal law yet.

If you have to list his items as well, you should be able to use the exemptions for two people because it will sound like both of you are filing even when you aren't.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Danaf, it took over three weeks for my Determination of No Assets to show up in PACER, which -- when it did show up -- was dated the day after the 341. Go figure.

Because you filed pro se, you have every right to contact your trustee directly, but you cannot ask him/her questions about completing the schedules: they tend to resent it when pro se filers ask them legal advice. Keep in mind that the documentation that a trustee asks for is almost entirely discretionary and a completely different matter than how you filled out your schedules. The two are not linked: what you included in your filing doesn't determine what docs a trustee will ask you for. Many trustees, including my own, have a standard set of docs they request in a given situation, and then they go from there. I wouldn't be surprised if what she requested of you is the exact same thing she requests of all married but filing singly cases she administers in your district.

In a nutshell, there is every probability you've already heard the end of it, and that she already has everything she needs. So me, I would sit tight -- as hard as that is to do, I know -- and wait at least another two weeks for something to show, either on PACER or from the trustee directly, before I considered contacting her. And if/when you do, phrase your questions very carefully so that you are not ever asking a "Do you think I should....?" kind of question, either overtly or by implication, so that you keep the communication flowing freely without crossing her professional boundaries.

Hope this helps -- maybe someone will disagree and I hope they post if they do -- but this is my thought on it. Good luck to you!!!

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Just a quick question. Would you have to include his items owned before the marriage if he isn't filing BK with you? I guess I don't understand the difference between state and federal law yet.

If you have to list his items as well, you should be able to use the exemptions for two people because it will sound like both of you are filing even when you aren't.

Just to clarify, if one person is filing but is married, he/she is already declaring a household of at least two people for purposes of the means test, and the married income is definitely going to be reflected in Schedules I & J.

However, if only one person is filing, then only one person's property is up for grabs: that of the filer. So the dual exemptions would actually be unfair in this scenario, because it would allow a single filer to exempt double the assets. Keep in mind that the single filer is not attempting to exempt the assets of the spouse.

Here's the kicker: if I recall correctly, whether community property is exempt in bk varies state to state -- I seem to recall one court ruling that community property was akin to being held in a tenancy by the entireties and therefore was exempt from either spouse's bk -- but that's not an issue here because it doesn't sound like there's any community property to exempt.

But regardless of the scenario, in any case where a married person files singly, they can expect increased attention from the trustee, as well as having to document what property belongs to whom in the marriage and when it was acquired. The trustee can't guess, and the debtor should be able to present his/her facts in the matter, so that a fair distribution can be made. All this is magnified by Danaf living in a community property state, but is basically the same in every state because if there's ever a question about what spouse owns what, you know the trustee's gonna be on it like a dog on a hamhock just to make sure there's no asset hiding.

So... Danaf would not have listed his assets on her schedules as her own assets -- and thus is not entitled to dual exemptions -- but she is definitely going to have to list them for the trustee so that the trustee can determine for herself what is Danaf's and what is her husbands. Apples and oranges. What the trustee requests in the way of documentation is a whole 'nother ballgame that is separate and distinct from the filing.

Does that help? I hope I haven't muddied it further...

[HHM]

Sit tight.