Saga with Trustee and Appraiser Continues

[karma]

Hello,
I was the one with the lost wedding ring that the trustee wanted. Well she has since dropped the ring issue, but now we got the personal property appraisal from the trustee (We are now at day number 90 and still awaiting discahrge ) In FL the personal property exemption is $2000, and our crap was appraised at over $5000, so now we get to do the wonderful job of going through our stuff and determine what we want to exempt, give up, or redeem. Has anyone had any experience of having to do this?

Thanks

[soleprop]

oh man that is awful. i'm currently getting questioned on how i applied exemptions to my assets; i may be headed down the same path.

my suggestion for you is this: use the personal property exemption to cover anything that you have which is irreplaceable (family heirloom, memento, etc). if you still have some exemption left, next priority for me at least would be absolutely necessary to live items (microwave, dishes, bed). that will probably do it for the remainder of your very unfairly small personal property exemption (MN has $8550 personal property, how in the world is florida's so small??).

my reasoning for suggesting this prioritization: you can find good used, free furniture and such literally on street corners in nice neighborhoods, you can buy it extremely cheap on craigslist or in a good will store, and you can begin to rebuild your personal belongings over time as you can afford, post bk.

good luck, keep us posted.

edit: i just flipped to the florida exemptions in the NOLO book and am outraged - you can't even opt for the federal exemptions if you file in florida -- and the florida exemptions don't come anyhere near the federal exemption values. it just doesn't seem right!!

i mean the federal government allows $10k+ (double that if you're married filing jointly) for personal property and that doesn't even include jewelry (another $1375x2), and florida allows $2k (that's the doubled value)???????

argh. how frustrating.

[paintinrosesred]

Did the trustee send an appraiser to your house and that appraiser came up with $5000?

This really sucks.. I'm sorry this has happened to you.

But they are letting you chose what items you want to put in your allowable exemption? Instead of saying "I want that.. and that"?
Have you been given the option to buy back any of your property?

[ready2puke]

Im dumbfounded....why in the world would anyone want someones elses crap!!! Except maybe the salvation army...so sorry.
Just curious did you go thru your drawers? I just cant picture how this is done

[soleprop]

But they are letting you chose what items you want to put in your allowable exemption? Instead of saying "I want that.. and that"? Have you been given the option to buy back any of your property?

everything i've read indicates that the trustee cannot cherrypick for items if they have been properly protected by application of the exemption code. so basically protect the stuff you absolutely do not want them to get, and then if something doesn't fit inside the remaining exemption, the trustee can have that only.

example, you want to keep your $2000 leather couch and only have a $2000 exemption, the trustee can opt to liquidate everything else you have listed as assets but not protected by exemptions. in reality, trustees seem to pass over the majority of our assets that are not protected by exemptions because they're too hard to liquidate. so this may be the case for the OP (i can only hope!)

[sunshine mary]

We had an appraiser come to the house before we filed (our attorney always suggests this for her clients ) and we were told we could pick and choose what we wanted to buy back or surrender..We haven't since we haven't heard one word from the trustee............yet lol.

[ready2puke]

Just wondering whats to stop someone from putting stuff in storage that they dont want to show? Maybe thats the obvious, but thinking out loud here

[soleprop]

the threat of prison? that's fraud.

[karma]

Yes, the trustee sent the appraiser to our house. He opened our cabinets, etc. He did not go through our drawers. We have been told by our attorney that we need to come up with a new exemption list based on the appraisal list and submit it to the trustee and then we will have to buy back the assets that we want to keep for the price listed on the appraisal. He put values on everything, including cheap art prints we bought on clearance at JCPenneys. He put values like $5, $10 etc. We are probably going to elect to keep the big stuff (lcd tv), couches, beds, etc, and let the rest of the stuff go. I just can't believe it is worth it to them to pick up $5 pictures to take to an auction house, where they will be lucky to get $.50 for it. It seems very inefficient to me, but I guess that is the government for ya. I don't understand why they do not just hold an auction with us (the debtors) and save themselves time and money. They say $5000, we say, we'll give you $3000 for it, done deal.

[AngelinaCat]

We are in Florida. I can't believe the trustee actually sent an appraiser to your house. Our trustee accepted what was on our paperwork, but we had several things that were not exempt that we want to keep. So we are in a buy back plan where we are paying the trustee $450.00 a month until April 2009, to redeem our stuff.

The trustee chose to abandon some of the things (2 old cars, and one we still owe on, and our property because of the homestead exemption and the fact that we have a life estate) as being too old with no practical value--the 2 cars--or being exempt and/or fully encumbered--the other car and the land.

I sure hate to hear of all this going on with you. Good luck!

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

Hi Karma,

Sounds like a nightmare! So sorry this happened to you. I Have a couple of questions: first, just wondered, what is the size of your house? Our atty said they have "guidelines" based on sq footage for the personal items (sorry, can't remember what they were).

And what did YOU say your stuff was worth on the schedules?

Also, to me, it seems if you keep the stuff they prefer to sell and tell them to come and get the rest (the less sellable stuff - if it works out okay for you, that is), maybe they would choose to abandon it.

But I don't know and am certainly no authority. I am just sorry this happened to you. Keep us posted on what they end up doing.

[ready2puke]

Maybe these trustees end up having garage sales on their front lawn. I swear I wouldnt know what they would do with it? Isnt the reason they would take it is to sell it to pay your creditors? Why would it even make a dent let alone all the hassel they have to go thru to do it..Amazing. Sounds like a punishment.

[paintinrosesred]

This reminds me of the show "clean house" where people are forced to part with their "junk". So think of it this way.. you are downsizing your "stuff". Unfortunately, our "stuff" sometimes has emotional attachments and we don't want to be forced to get rid of it. So it's all very much punishment to me if they want a $5 picture on the wall.
Just keep the goal in sight.. debt free soon.
I'll probably need someone to remind me of this when they are taking my "stuff".

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

Remember, if they sell your stuff, they have to pay someone to pick it up, pay someone to store it until the auction, pay someone to auction it, and then they take a big chunk right off the top of any "proceeds" for the trustee before the rest is divided among creditors.

[FlaOnTheRocks]

Waiting for appraiser in Florida too

I am also waiting for the appraiser to come to my house. I guess the trustee feels that there must be something of value in the house but like you its just a bunch of stuff that was overpriced when I bought it and worth close to nothing now (thanks partly to two dogs and a cat). I would gladly give it all to the trustee in exchange for a discharge... right now I am fighting to stay in my chapter 7 as the UST just filed 707(b) presumed abuse on me.