Terrible Trustee!

[berrymom35]

I posted a long post about my 341 experience yesterday, but just wanted to elaborate on the trustee I had....

she did not dismiss anyone with a good luck...she continued every single case we sat in on....one lady lived with her father and paid him $900 a month to cover the mortgage and utilities...he lives in the garage appartment and she lives in the main house with her kids....her father put her and her two brother's names on the deed so that when he passes they will not fight over the house but have equal claim to it...anyway, the trustee continued the case and said that she is going to see if she has the rigth to take it and sell it to pay off her creditors since her name is on the deed! There is about 50,000 in equity in the house!

Another lady was keeping her house and had valued it at 90,000 but that was the assessed value....so she continued her case and she is sending her own appraiser out and he will need to get into the house!

Another couple she questioned their children's private school...it was $350 per month for two kids...she said she thought that was excessive and maybe they needed to send their kids to public school and pay their creditors with tha $350...she continued their case so she could "look into it" to see if she could make them do that or not.

It was unbelievable.....

[Tbornetun]

Where do you live? Or I should say, what district does this trustee work in?

[berrymom35]

lol! You mean you hope your not in the western district of Missouri!

[Chowder]

Sounds like you had a b**ch of a trustee. I'm certain even if you had been prepared, you'd still have gotten a rough time from her.

But really, 3 posts?

[berrymom35]

3 posts? As in me making 3 posts? Well, if you must know...my first was really long and I don't expect everyone to read through my entire experience...so I thought I would make one post just about the horrible trustee I had to warn people that 341's are not always roses as many of the posts here entail.....and the third was basically because no one had responded...no one made you read those posts...you don't have to be insulting.

[bkmaggster]

I posted a long post about my 341 experience yesterday, but just wanted to elaborate on the trustee I had....

she did not dismiss anyone with a good luck...she continued every single case we sat in on....one lady lived with her father and paid him $900 a month to cover the mortgage and utilities...he lives in the garage appartment and she lives in the main house with her kids....her father put her and her two brother's names on the deed so that when he passes they will not fight over the house but have equal claim to it...anyway, the trustee continued the case and said that she is going to see if she has the rigth to take it and sell it to pay off her creditors since her name is on the deed! There is about 50,000 in equity in the house!

Another lady was keeping her house and had valued it at 90,000 but that was the assessed value....so she continued her case and she is sending her own appraiser out and he will need to get into the house!

Another couple she questioned their children's private school...it was $350 per month for two kids...she said she thought that was excessive and maybe they needed to send their kids to public school and pay their creditors with tha $350...she continued their case so she could "look into it" to see if she could make them do that or not.

It was unbelievable.....

After reading this board for several months, all of those scenarios you described are exactly how I would expect the trustee to react. The trustee makes money off of how much they can collect for creditors. If there is equity in a home or money going to private school when public schools are adequate, of course they are going to question it.

I think many of us have "easy" 341s because we knew to expect that the trustee would be questioning everything. Maybe not. I do hope your continuance goes really smoothly, and your lawyer gets her act in gear.

[AngelinaCatHub]

There is always one. We were warned by our good 4 nutting lawyer that she hoped we got so and so. Well we lucked out, we did. We did everything wrong and we worked through it. Expensive, time consuming (we still are not closed a year 13th this month) but, we got through.

You got the b**tch on PMS, I'm afraid.

You will prevail. I can name several others who have been in this for literally years, to get through with various situations. However, THEY got through. You will also.

My sympathies about Dad. Seems like everything comes at once. This too shall pass.

With all love in God, 'Hub

[backtoschool]

After reading this board for several months, all of those scenarios you described are exactly how I would expect the trustee to react. The trustee makes money off of how much they can collect for creditors. If there is equity in a home or money going to private school when public schools are adequate, of course they are going to question it.

I think many of us have "easy" 341s because we knew to expect that the trustee would be questioning everything. Maybe not. I do hope your continuance goes really smoothly, and your lawyer gets her act in gear.

I have to agree with bkmaggster on this one. In these other examples listed above, if the woman's name is on the deed, then that asset comes under the bankruptcy estate and needs to be put in the exemptions. Many people filing bankruptcy have family members help them out, and paying 900/month to a father for "rent" and also having your name on the deed is definitely something a trustee would look at.

As to private school, most trustee's see that as a luxury unless the person lives in horrible school district.

I lurked on this board reading for a long time before I had the courage to post, and all the cases I read where there were problems were when a family simply didn't want to give up the luxuries or lifestyle that they had before they declared bankruptcy, or when the filer was trying to hide or transfer assets.

Trustees have seen it all. They know when they need to sniff around more...

Just my opinion....

[Chowder]

3 posts? As in me making 3 posts? Well, if you must know...my first was really long and I don't expect everyone to read through my entire experience...so I thought I would make one post just about the horrible trustee I had to warn people that 341's are not always roses as many of the posts here entail.....and the third was basically because no one had responded...no one made you read those posts...you don't have to be insulting.

I'm sorry, not three posts. Three separate threads.

Anyone who has hung around here knows full well what can happen.

Your experience exemplifies just how important it is to be prepared for the worst.

[banca rotta]

I posted a long post about my 341 experience yesterday, but just wanted to elaborate on the trustee I had....

she did not dismiss anyone with a good luck...she continued every single case we sat in on....one lady lived with her father and paid him $900 a month to cover the mortgage and utilities...he lives in the garage appartment and she lives in the main house with her kids....her father put her and her two brother's names on the deed so that when he passes they will not fight over the house but have equal claim to it...anyway, the trustee continued the case and said that she is going to see if she has the rigth to take it and sell it to pay off her creditors since her name is on the deed! There is about 50,000 in equity in the house!

Another lady was keeping her house and had valued it at 90,000 but that was the assessed value....so she continued her case and she is sending her own appraiser out and he will need to get into the house!

Another couple she questioned their children's private school...it was $350 per month for two kids...she said she thought that was excessive and maybe they needed to send their kids to public school and pay their creditors with tha $350...she continued their case so she could "look into it" to see if she could make them do that or not.

It was unbelievable.....

It sounds like the trustee was doing her job.

I'm not in love with trustees, but this is what they do I thought, right?

[bkmaggster]

You got the b**tch on PMS, I'm afraid.

'Hub, you consistently post good information in a polite, well-mannered, classy way. Certainly you aren't implying that if a woman in a position of power is doing her job in a way you don't like, then of course her period is to blame?

[justbroke]

I'm actually with the minority on this one. The Trustee did exactly what s/he was supposed to do. Question things that made no sense at all.

Observations:

1. If you're on the deed for any home, regardless of what the "intent" of your relative, dad, mom, friend, grandmother, ex-husband, philanthropist, or even philanderer, you need to protect that as it is exposed in a Bankruptcy. If the person had a lawyer, their lawyer was just not that up on the asset protection part (or they hired a lawyer just to file, and not to protect)
2. When people own real property, the Trustee should question your valuation method. It's actually a standard question. If you used an appraiser, they'll back off. However, if you just pulled the number out of the sky (tax assessor, your "own" market analysis and you're not a licensed Realtor, Zillow, Domania, etc, etc, etc), then you will be questioned.
3. Private school is always touchy, and to me, if the Debtor is in dire straights, but still sending children to private school (and the schools in the area aren't "bad"), then they do so at the expense of their unsecured creditors.

In the end, the Trustee is looking for money. It may seem mean or improper or inconsistent (which sometimes it is), but their job is actually to make sure the creditors get what they are allowed under the law. The Trustee represents the creditors. This is why most creditors don't show up at your 341 Meeting or any other hearings.

I want to make one other observation. I think the Trustee continued the meetings, so that s/he has more time to evaluate the Petition. Remember, the Trustee/UST has only 10 days to file a statement of presumption of abuse. If all your paper isn't good anyhow, this "delay tactic" buys them some time. I'm sure all the Trustees/USTs are overwhelmed with work, and this one found a way to "stop" the clock -- so to speak.

The Question of the Day.

Would you rather all your creditors show up and ask you all these questions, and probe much much more deeply into how you spent and spend your income?

[AngelinaCatHub]

'Hub, you consistently post good information in a polite, well-mannered, classy way. Certainly you aren't implying that if a woman in a position of power is doing her job in a way you don't like, then of course her period is to blame?

No, not at all. Strictly speaking rhetorically. This particular Trustee seemed not to JUST be doing her job. Seems like she suspected everyone in the room as there are ways of saying something as you stated, in a more polite way. She put most everyone out to another 341. I've seen many lady lawyers. Some of them smile, once in a while. LOL. Seems and I can only conjecture from what the OP said that this was a rough gal. Our Trustee had an old lady pro se. She did nothing right and her SS card didn't even have her right name on it (she had divorced). He was very kind, educated her, and then extended her 341. He didn't chew her up as some would. 'Hub

[OhioFiler]

'Hub, you consistently post good information in a polite, well-mannered, classy way. Certainly you aren't implying that if a woman in a position of power is doing her job in a way you don't like, then of course her period is to blame?

LOL...I wondered if someone was going to bust Hub on that post. Being a guy, I knew I couldn't!

[frogger]

In the end, the Trustee is looking for money.

The Trustee is not your friend, is not your lawyer, and is not looking out for you. As justbroke states, they are looking for money. They are representing the "other side".

And as was said, they've seen it all...