Quick Statement of Intent Question

[drowningbk]

Apologies if this has been asked before but a search didn't come up with an answer for me.

I have filed pro se will all necessary documents, including the statement of intent. I listed two lease contracts, one for my apartment and one for my car. The apartment I am keeping, but the car I checked as a surrender.

My question is, do I now have to serve the statement of intent to both the apartment and the car finance company in a separate mailing?

[justbroke]

The official process for filing the Statement of Intentions is as follows...

"A copy of the Statement of Intention must be served on the Chapter 7 Trustee and creditors that are listed in the statement on or before the date the statement is filed with the court." Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1007(b)(2).

Since the car is a lease, you may need to file a Motion to Reject Lease... but that would depend on local rules as to whether you can reject it simply by filing the statement of intentions. In any case, a lease (or unexpired executory contract) is automatically rejected after 45 days of filing your petition.

You may need to file a Motion to Assume Lease for the apartment, since you're staying.

I don't practice law, so I can't tell you specifically what you should file with respect to a Motion to either Assume or Reject either lease. In my case, I did write a specific motion to reject the only lease I had at the time. My lease was for a home that I was renting.

[drowningbk]

Thank you for the quick response.

So it sounds like I was supposed to mail the statement of intention when I filed it with the court. Since I filed the statement along with my petition, it's been about a week now. Should I go ahead and still mail the statement of intention forms to the trustee and the two lesees or do I need to file an amendment or the like with the court again? Any help would be appreciated.

[justbroke]

Thank you for the quick response.

So it sounds like I was supposed to mail the statement of intention when I filed it with the court. Since I filed the statement along with my petition, it's been about a week now. Should I go ahead and still mail the statement of intention forms to the trustee and the two lesees or do I need to file an amendment or the like with the court again? Any help would be appreciated.

Okay, so I'm getting into some procedural stuff here, but this is the way the Rule tells you to do it. Of course, I'm paraphrasing too.

First, serve the Statement of Intentions on the Case Trustee and All Secured Creditors. That Statement of Intentions should have a new certificate of Service with it. Then file the new Certificate of Service with the Court. This Certificate of Service must have your original (wet) signature on it.

You don't need to re-file the Statement of Intentions. You only need to file the Certificate of Service. Make sure your new Certificate of Service has the appropriate headers on it for your court... you know the blah blah blah United States Bankruptcy Court... stuff. The caption should read something like "Statement of Intentions - Amended Certificate of Service".

So long as you do this within 30 days of filing, you should be procedurally, okay!

[drowningbk]

Thank you! I really appreciate the help.

[bkmaggster]

Just curious...what can happen if you don't serve the statements? All of the people we would have notified filed their motions and included in the motions was our intent, so they clearly were notified electronically. We couldn't find anyone to do the service for it, so we just decided not to do it since those creditors had acknowledged our intent in their motions. Trustee didn't mention it at the 341, either.

[justbroke]

Just curious...what can happen if you don't serve the statements? All of the people we would have notified filed their motions and included in the motions was our intent, so they clearly were notified electronically. We couldn't find anyone to do the service for it, so we just decided not to do it since those creditors had acknowledged our intent in their motions. Trustee didn't mention it at the 341, either.

Do you have the NoLo Book for Chapter 7? I have the Chapter 13 book, and I looked, just to make sure, that it doesn't have the procedure on filing the Statement of Intentions. I'm pretty sure it's covered in the NoLo Chapter 7 book.

If you don't serve the Statement of Intentions, then it's a procedural error. You can receive sanctions which may include case dismissal. However, that's drastic. Just make sure you serve them. While everyone in the Bankruptcy is notified of the Bankruptcy, they have to actually look at the filing to see the Statement of Intentions, as the Clerk/Court doesn't mail that out.

Since you seem to have skated by, I hope you're procedurally good on other things. The mis-service could come back to haunt you, if a creditor challenged your Intentions later, if you did something different than what's in your Statement of Intentions.

Service of Process is all about a duty to disclose papers that you're filing with the court, and serving those papers upon the other interested party in the case.

The Trustee wouldn't mention it, because they are not responsible for making sure you follow court procedure. It's the Court and the Clerk who make sure you follow procedure. Where you get in trouble is where it comes back to haunt you on some technicality. In your particular case, you may be okay.

[shabam]

I noticed my lawyer did not fill out a statement of intention for our residential lease, only the car lease.

[justbroke]

I noticed my lawyer did not fill out a statement of intention for our residential lease, only the car lease.

There's only one Statement of Intention, and it's a form. Do you mean they didn't create a Motion to Assume for your residential lease?

[bkmaggster]

The Trustee wouldn't mention it, because they are not responsible for making sure you follow court procedure. It's the Court and the Clerk who make sure you follow procedure. Where you get in trouble is where it comes back to haunt you on some technicality. In your particular case, you may be okay.

The Nolo book says you have to serve the trustee, too. We didn't. That's what I meant. Because the motions specifically state that the creditors received the statement of intent, and not just the notice of filing, I would think they would have a hard time with a procedural complaint. Ugh, I guess I'll try to figure out who to tell about this and drag them to the post office so that they can serve for me, although I'm well past 30 days.