I was worried that our case would look "bad" as it seemed a little unusual. My husband's parents gave us a substantial cash gift in April, which we used as a down payment on a home in July, and then we filed for BK7 in October. We weren't planning to file BK, but we had been making minimum payments on our cc bills for a long time out of savings, and the savings ran out before our income came up enough to make ends meet (husband is self-employed). Also we ended up charging some auto repair expenses and home repair materials and even groceries to a credit card in August even though by that point we pretty much knew things were bad...that we could not even continue to pay the minimums. But we didn't know what else to do.
Anyway I thought the trustee would ask a bunch of questions about why since we had this large lump sum of cash in April we didn't pay off our bills. Well for one thing it would have only paid off about a quarter of the debt...so we still would have had a lot of debt, and not had anywhere to live. It made the most sense FOR US to use the money as a down payment on a house, but I was afraid the trustee would say we should have paid our creditors first.
BUT...he really didn't ask anything about that. He just asked where the down payment came from, and then asked about assets for my husband's business, like his computer. DH explained his computer is a laptop that is falling apart--literally, it is over 5 years old, and the screen is hanging on one hinge. Then the trustee asked, "Well what about a desk?" Um, no, not really. It's one of these cheapie particle-board things a friend gave us when he moved across the country. We tried to sell it at a yard sale last spring for $20 and nobody even wanted it. Anyway DH explained that he works from home and so the desk was already listed in our schedule of personal property, so the trustee didn't ask anymore about that.
Then he said it looked like everything in our paperwork was in order, and we could go. We were pro se and practically everyone before us had had some kind of problem with their documents so I guess he was just glad we had everything filled out right. I mean he would ask people how they figured the value of their house and they would just shrug and say they guessed...you could tell he didn't like the vague answers he was getting. He told several people they would be continued so they could fill their paperwork out properly. The woman who went before us did not have a good time at all. Her case sounded kind of complicated, maybe a little fishy even, like she had tried to transfer some property to avoid seizure. He told her bluntly he was going to sell her house and that she needed to get an attorney. I was surprised she didn't cry.
I was also surprised no creditors came--there is one CC we owe about $18K to and I was sure they would come and say something. But, nobody came. I guess in a BK7 there's not much point unless they are sure they can prove some kind of abuse/fraud.
So now we are in the 60-day club.
Anyway I thought the trustee would ask a bunch of questions about why since we had this large lump sum of cash in April we didn't pay off our bills. Well for one thing it would have only paid off about a quarter of the debt...so we still would have had a lot of debt, and not had anywhere to live. It made the most sense FOR US to use the money as a down payment on a house, but I was afraid the trustee would say we should have paid our creditors first.
BUT...he really didn't ask anything about that. He just asked where the down payment came from, and then asked about assets for my husband's business, like his computer. DH explained his computer is a laptop that is falling apart--literally, it is over 5 years old, and the screen is hanging on one hinge. Then the trustee asked, "Well what about a desk?" Um, no, not really. It's one of these cheapie particle-board things a friend gave us when he moved across the country. We tried to sell it at a yard sale last spring for $20 and nobody even wanted it. Anyway DH explained that he works from home and so the desk was already listed in our schedule of personal property, so the trustee didn't ask anymore about that.
Then he said it looked like everything in our paperwork was in order, and we could go. We were pro se and practically everyone before us had had some kind of problem with their documents so I guess he was just glad we had everything filled out right. I mean he would ask people how they figured the value of their house and they would just shrug and say they guessed...you could tell he didn't like the vague answers he was getting. He told several people they would be continued so they could fill their paperwork out properly. The woman who went before us did not have a good time at all. Her case sounded kind of complicated, maybe a little fishy even, like she had tried to transfer some property to avoid seizure. He told her bluntly he was going to sell her house and that she needed to get an attorney. I was surprised she didn't cry.
I was also surprised no creditors came--there is one CC we owe about $18K to and I was sure they would come and say something. But, nobody came. I guess in a BK7 there's not much point unless they are sure they can prove some kind of abuse/fraud.
So now we are in the 60-day club.
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