Finally talked to an attorney about paying bills up front.

[hnhlvr]

Hi all,

My DH is selling his truck and we plan to use the money to pay many months worth of rent up front.

I finally called a lawyer and she said that if I pay that money up front that it means a ligitimate living expense is being paid, so that the trustee cannot see it as a transfer of funds and take that money back from my landlord and dispurse it amongst my creditors.

I thought the trustee would take the money? We'd be paying six months rent. It's a lot of cash, but also a guarantee we'd not be homeless since my husband's income, alone, isn't sufficient for us to live off of.

Oh, also, I paid the cell phone bill for a few months and same with my power bill. This is basically all the cash we had so I thought we'd need those things covered.

Thoughts?

[Joe Farmer]

Don't prepay that much rent untill you find your exemptions!

In my state you can ONLY have $1500 in prepaid deposits and rent, they WILL go after the landlord for any excess! What state are you in???

[hnhlvr]

Washington State

[keepmine]

It's a lot of cash, but also a guarantee we'd not be homeless since my husband's income, alone, isn't sufficient for us to live off of.

Don't file until, you're able to generate enough income to support yourselves.

[hnhlvr]

That's what I've read/been told by all others. What that attorney said seemed too good to be true. I'll get some additional legal opinions before deciding, but I wonder why she'd give me that advice when it seems contrary to common sense???

Everything else she seemed to be on target with, it's just that one aspect re: rent I couldn't figure out. The main issue I was addressing with her was avoiding any judgements, but I thought that the best line of defense is having my bank accounts empty. We don't have much and we NEED what we do have! If we don't have that rent money, we DO NOT have a place to live!

[Joe Farmer]

Yikes!

Quick glance through WA state exemptions (and you can choose the federal exemptions in WA), I see NO provision for you to prepay utilities, much LESS six months worth of rent! The max wild card is $2000 for WA state. I think your lawyer is an idiot....not only are you playing with fire and risking that excess being taken from your landlord, you are also risking being evicted if that happens, if providing that extra prepaid money is a condition of your lease... I'm just an amateur viewer in here but your main concern is not being homeless, but I am concerned about your lawyer's apparent lack of attention to such simple detail at state exemptions....

[danaf]

How much money are you talking about? You can use federal exemptions which are generous compared to Wa state exemptions.

[momof5]

I would be very careful with this one. Your selling an asset preBK. Not sure when you plan to file but you have already spoken to an attorney. A vehicle is fairly easy to trace via registrations,title, insurance etc.

[Cali]

I don't think your attorney is being accurate in what he is telling you.
How much is your rent? How many months will you pay?

My attorney would have told me quick, I can't do that. Of course our rent a month is more than some pay in 3 or 4 months.

[hnhlvr]

Federal exemptions are more generous that WA state ones, but when I mentioned that she didn't seem to be receptive to following federal law.

I already decided NOT to go with her and go back to my initial plan of waiting until all my money runs out before filing. I guess the biggest issue now would be that I paid first and last and damage for my rental a few months back. Can the trustee get THAT if we file one year after that point or the point in which I send a large rent check? I would be evicted and it'd be impossible to find another home w/out any cash to put up front.

My monthly rent is $1400. I wanted to pay many months up front to ensure that the cash isn't in the account sounding off a red flag in case any creditors decide to poke around and see if we're worth filing a judgement against.

Oh, another thing. She said that you only have to wait one year to file if you transfer money to a family member. I thought it's two years??? She also said we'd only have to wait 60 days for questionable purchases and I was speculating it's more around 90 days.

Cali - how much is your rent per month?

**** Oh, and i want to clarify. The woman is NOT my lawyer. I haven't retained her. She and I talked on the phone for 30 minutes. She charges too much anyhow $900 ($250 an hour!) ****

[Cali]

My rent is 2900/mth.

[hnhlvr]

That is a bit more. You filed ch. 7?

I've been thinking and have determined that the lawyer is just trying to protect her own butt (we all care most about our own best interest, right?) She mentioned never hiding anything from the trustee, so in her eyes, it's best to have the money RIGHT there and hope that we can pull off an excuse for not handing it over to the creditors (or maybe she doesn't even care if it is handed over to the creditors - she just wants HER share of the money for her retainer).

Anyhow, I think for the time being, my best option is holding off in talking to another attorney until I can figure out a better game-plan.

[Cali]

Yes I filed C7 and I already had my 341.

[liz417]

My rent is 2900/mth.

Ouch! That's San Diego for you....

[mongoose]

I think you can ask three different attys the same question and get three different answers. Just a general statement.