experience with personal property exemption

[kathy4530050]

I have a question about personal property. The first lawyer I saw wanted an extremely detailed list of my personal property and even wanted photographs of each room in my house (I'm renting) as well as a photograph of my car. I had to list every piece of furniture, pictures, mirrors, lamps, pots and pans, clothes, and even had to count my books! (thousands).

The lawyer I have decided to use asked this: if I were to have an estate sale and sold every single thing I owned, what would that amount to? With the exception of my office equipment, every single thing I own is old and worth very little, so this was easy. No list, no pictures.

I'd like to know what other people were required to provide. How interested is the trustee in the value of normal household goods? Would they even bother looking at pictures of your stuff??

What was your experience?

Thanks,

Kathy

[Vanda]

The trustee originally asked for photos of all my furniture. The lawyer told me to ignore that. I could have done it, but what a pain. They never asked again. Then they wanted photos of the car showing the odometer, etc. and photos of all my jewelry, which I provided. I think it depends on the trustee, or maybe on the lawyer at the trustee's firm who has been assigned to the case. and of course your personal situation. My lawyer never had me count books or itemize things in that much detail. He asked me what pieces of furniture were in each room and if anything was new. I don't have anything worth much which is fortunate since Florida only allows $1000.

[bigreddog]

How much to list for assets?

I'm shocked that anyone would request photos. Isn't a sworn oath in front of the trustee and signing the petition enough??? When we were filling out our attorneys questionaire, I did an Excel spreadsheet and walked thru each room. It was 10 pages long! He looked at it and laughed and asked me if I was kidding? He summarized all 10 pages into about 4 paragraphs and the trustee didn't even blink at it. And I was afraid I'd missed something.