Ch 13 dismissed; Had to quickly file a Ch 7 to keep the auto stay in effect

[CoBelle]

I filed a Ch 13 in June to try to buy out my ex's share of my home, make repairs to it, and then sell it for big bucks and pay off all my creditors and keep the rest. Sounds easy, right?

Ex-husband has big bucks and litigates everything to death...still haven't gotten my divorce property settlement from 2003.

EX tried and failed to have my 13 dismissed by saying I had no income to fund my plan. Next he moved on to saying that an investment property I 've been paying for since 2007 was 'unsecured' debt..and that if it wasn't secured debt taht I was over the debt limits.He won that.

So long/short, I filed for a Ch 7 on Monday. I think I'm in the unique position of trying to prove to the Trustee that my house is worth much more than my ex wants to sell it for (to his intimate friend). This might be tthe only way to stop the sale and instead have the Trustee sell it for more bucks.

What I REALLY want--to buy out ex's share at the pricee point that he wants to sell to his 'friend' for.. could have been accomplished in the 13, but I don't think it can be done in the 7.

I believe its too late to try and get the 13 reinstated (mostly because I filed for a 7 so as to protect against losing the house to ex) so, I'm just gonna have to deal with what is.

Pretty sure I don't have ANY non exempt assets. Since August, I'm living on $890/mo social security and $505 for a health insurance stipend. My previous income was pretty high but I stilll passed the means test. My assets are exempt (except there might be questions on the HSA account and my paying in full each month of my 13 my cc's which were never in arrears and always paid in full by auto pay both before and after filing the13.

I should have been allowed to convert instead of filing anew...but had to get that immediate protection from the auto stay.

All that said, I feel I don't know the ins and outs of a 7, esp where they differ from a 13.

I did an emergency filing, so need to get the rest of my paperwork in within the next 12days. I can fill out the paperwork using my 13 petition as a resource, but I'm still trying to find an attorney because my ex will still litigate me to death.

Appreciate any pitfall advice or ideas on how I might save the house in a Ch7.

[researchnerd]

Welcome, I think I remember you from the Ch13 forum. We started with a Ch13 in May but then converted to a Ch7 in July, after DH's unemployment ended and we could no longer fund the plan.

In general, Ch7 is much less complicated than Ch13 and should be less expensive as well. You will have to go through another 341 but it will be quicker. I can't help with advice on how to save the house; we are surrendering ours and that was very easy. Is letting the house go an option? Might it be worth it, to be done with the ex?

Because you have a litigation-happy ex, I recommend getting the most knowledgeable, aggressive lawyer you can afford...but you probably already know that What stake does your ex have in your BK case - is he a creditor?

[CoBelle]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice!!!!!

Letting the house go isn't an option because there is no regular debt on it..only judgment liens filed by my ex and his cohorts .
These liens impair my homestead exemption so I have to avoid them in order to even get that out of the sale.
The problem is that the 'sale' is a bogus sale to ex's intimate friend for pennies on the dollar.
The house provides an income to me (from renting a 1 bd apt.) and is much cheaper than renting in our area.
Finally, if I could just fix it up and sell it (I'm a builder and Realtor by trade, though retired) it would more than cover all
the debts on it, even to ex, and give me money to buy something else instead of being homeless.

Of course it still wouldn't stop ex from litigating as he still owes me my retireement money and he doesn't want to pay it.

[CoBelle]

Duh! I didn't answer your question re ex being a creditor.

He is an unsecured creditor except that when he knew I was filing he put liens on the house totaling $130,000. These liens are violations of state court orders, they are preferentail, AND they were filed without first getting a judgment AND finally they impair my homestead....So there are 4 good reasons why they aren't valid and should be avoided.

[tobee43]

Duh! I didn't answer your question re ex being a creditor.

He is an unsecured creditor except that when he knew I was filing he put liens on the house totaling $130,000. These liens are violations of state court orders, they are preferentail, AND they were filed without first getting a judgment AND finally they impair my homestead....So there are 4 good reasons why they aren't valid and should be avoided.

really the more i read about the complexity of your situation the more i know you need an atty to assist you with this...and i was in the legal field for some time....don't do this along...while you are extremely intelligent...i have no doubt of that...an atty will have the relationship with the courts you simply do not have. he or she should know the behaviors of the trustee's in their districts and will have at least a good conceptional view on whether your 7 will fly or not...

there is just too much here ...i mean if we were all sitting in your living room and working our firm asses off...maybe we could all pull this off...however, i think you really seriously need to find someone to assist YOU...that means you still run the show, since you are quite capable of doing so...you just need the "in" with the courts to help you.

we are all here for you!! this is an uphill battle not one that can't be won! i know you will win this!

[CoBelle]

Hi Tobee ,I'm not trying to do this alone. I've called every bk attorney rec'd to me and no one has called back or they have but said no to the
complexity and litigation that will come. Same happed with the 13 which is why I ended up with a not so good attorney for that.
Bk lawyers want EASY and of course mine isn't easy. Yet the docs have to be filed within the next 12 days.

I've emailed and called this one firm who seemed interested, but no one has called back today even tho my call this morning was to say please URGENT.

I almost wish I had just refiled my `13 and said that the supposedly unsecured creditor had taken back the property the day after the stay was lifted....so no more debt either secured or unsecured.

[tobee43]

i think i totally understand you need a firm which handles the litigation as well as the bk....which in many cases is difficult to do.

may i make a suggestion here....

call a civil atty...the BEST litigator you can find....they WILL get the bk atty for you.....a great litigator can talk most bk atty's to the ground...i do believe the priority is the letigation. ...just a thought

[CoBelle]

That's a great idea.....and I actually know someone BUT can a Co. lawyer practice in US Bk FED court?

[tcreegan]

Hi Cobelle,

I agree w/ tobee, I think you are going to need help on this one.

I think I'm in the unique position of trying to prove to the Trustee that my house is worth much more than my ex wants to sell it for
At least this one is easy, you probably know some prof. appraisers....anyone owe you a favor?

too late to try and get the 13 reinstated (mostly because I filed for a 7 so as
pretty much, unlike a 13, you have to show cause for a Ch 7 dismissal and then there is a 6 month waiting period before refiling

my paying in full each month of my 13 my cc's which were never in arrears and always paid in full by auto pay both before and after filing the13.
You can quit paying these, no bonus points for this in Ch 7....

but had to get that immediate protection from the auto stay.
If you refile a 13 the stay is only 30 days, but I don't know if that is true for a 13 dismiss; file 7
You might need to file for an extension of the stay

You can save 60K of house (90K if over 65) in Colo, ...not sure how much over this before the trustee will sell it for a distribution. And of course there is the problem of avoiding the liens.

Since you are working under a tight deadline, do you know about the NOLO book? Very helpful, see www.nolo.com

Good luck w/ this, hope you can find a super-duper attorney to fight for you!

Tom in Colo

[CoBelle]

Hi Tom...Tobee said you knew lots re Colorado bk and I appreciate your dropping by!

Refiles and serial are treated the same and you get only 30 days unless you file a Motion to Extend which I did (but just remembered I didn't include an Order blank)
Justbroke said it should be filed at the same time as the new filing but I couldn't do it until I got a case number so it was actually a day later....hope that doesn't screw me.

I don't think I need a favor to get a house appraised at $1.565 in 2008, to appraise at more than $600,000 today. Even for a quick sale, it should come in around 1mil. (Tom, I'm in a ski resort town and prices are down around 20% from 2008)
My share of the house doesn' t have any consensual debt but does have some prop tax arrears , closiong costs, and judgment liens . There is a HELOC secured by the house but payoff is dicey: x took it out on his share of the house so it is secured by the house but payable by him and reinbursable to him for my share by court order....so it could be that this debt is unsecured debt of mine and not secured. For lien avoidance I figured it as secured and coming off the topbefore the60%/40% split.

While i don't want it to sell for $600,000....I really don't want anyone but me to sell it because that's the only way I can make any $$$ and pay off my debts.

I know i don't have to pay cc's but for me....I bought what I bought and I always pay for what I agree to pay for. It's debt that I didn't say I'd pay for that I don't want to pay for!!!!!!

it's a $90k homestead over age 62.

[tcreegan]

90k homestead on a 600K house....ouch!

[CoBelle]

Ah but my shre of the house is about $315 after closing costs and property taxes. My share of the HELoc @ $100k; divorce lawyer $91k; another lawyer $11k , ex $130k...
so that makes my $90 k homestead impaired.

In 30 days (if the stay isn't extended) I'd have to refile lien avoidance (already done in the 13 and i can copy) but don't quite know what happens if there is a hearing
set yet the Receiver tries to evict me and sell my house to the preferential buyer. Can the Trustee object to the end of the stay IF he's decided to keep the property in the estate?