Trustee sending appraisor.

[05mag]

Anyone had the trustee send an appraisor to appraise your personal assets? Are they fair in the value of your belongings, what do they look for, do they go through all your drawers and cabinets, do they tear your house apart? Very nervous about this, anyone that had an appraisor sent out please let me know your experince. Thanks.

[Freddy03]

I have not but I see you are in FL also. I'm wondering how offen this is done.

[maddog2112]

I had the appraiser come to my house when converting from a 13 to 7. It was a young guy, and it seemed like he just had a job to do and going thru the motions. He walked thru the house and jotted down a general inventory of furniture and general stuff in each room. He did not look very hard and when I asked, he said everything was appraised at yard sale prices. thats when I knew my stuff wouldn`t be worth much. Believe me. I have alot of nice stuff, but it`s not worth beans at a yard sale. I don`t remember if he asked about jewelry and such, but he certainly did`nt search for anything and I offered no extra info!! Hope this helps.

[AngelinaCat]

While this did not happen with us, we are in NE Florida, I have read of it happening in the Tampa Bay and Sarasota areas. Hopefully, some of the members from those areas will post their experiences.

[05mag]

Thanks for the info, hopefully someone from this area will post there experence. My wife is really upset for fear they will be going through her personal things in the dresser drawers and possible selling things she's had since childhood. Sure hope it doesn't come to that.

[keepinitreal]

05mag, you should check out posts by beachymama. She was in a similar situation of getting her possessions appraised by a Florida trustee.

[dokis2112]

trustee of beachymama was in same ft myers district .

[05mag]

dorkis2112, yea I read some of her posts, I guess the trustee is going after us cause we're keeping the house ( lots of equity ) and we only get a $1000 each for all our personal property. We listed garage sale prices for everything as we have nothing newer than four years old, so I'm sure the appraiser will be higher on alot of things

[dokis2112]

i got the pacer notice earlier. i feel your stress . just keep reading this great forum and a few people have suggested some great ideas about pre-appraisal situations.

[maddog2112]

05Mag, I seriously wouldn`t worry about it! As my lawyer told me. It`s just a formality. They won`t be trying to match what you have declared versus what they see in your house, except maybe for anything you may have claimed that is worth alot of money. As I said before. All the normal household items that mean alot to me, won`t be worth a hill of beans to the appraisor. Sleep well. This won`t be a problem!

[justbroke]

If you only have the $1,000 exemption, and are living in a large home, the Trustees in Florida are very smart and will usually send an appraiser. If your paperwork is flawless and you're using the $4,000 ununsed homestead exemption along with the $1,000 constitutional (wildcard) exemption, they tend to not bother you.

I'm in Central Florida and I was not ordered to have an appraisal in either my Chapter 13 or my converted Chapter 7 case.

Anyone who is just taking the $1,000 exemption and somehow has "nothing" that's non-exempt, will probably get to have the appraiser visit them. It's just too hard to explain that you only own $1,000 worth of furnishings when you're living in a 2,000sqft (+) home in Florida. The Trustee not going after you because of equity. The Trustee sees just $2,000 in exemptions and if you have just ONE plasma TV over 37", they will smell that something is foul.

Once the valuation is done, you and your attorney can decide whether to fight it or not, if it comes out higher.

[05mag]

justbroke, I can understand it if we had a large expensve home, but we live in a modest 100k home and income is from social security and VA disability ($2900 a month). Nothing in the home is newer than 5 years except our dryer (3 years). Not sure what they are looking for!!

[justbroke]

They are looking for assets. The home doesn't need to be "expensive" at all. It just needs to be larger than a breadbox. The key is, do they feel that your Schedule B adequately describes and accounts for your property. That's it. If they think that the values are too low or things are missing... appraisal time! I didn't have an appraisal ordered. I, however, had the $4,000 unused homestead exemption. If yu're only working with the $1,000 exemption (or doubled to $2,000), expect more scrutiny.

[ozarkmiss]

second the advice to search for beachymamas posts and blogs. She had apprasier come. The appraiser wrote a comment on her blog!

[05mag]

Anyone else care to share their experence with having an appraiser come to look at your assets? Looking for all the input I can get. Thanks.