Hello everyone! I am SO glad to have found this forum, because I have been eating myself up alive trying to come to terms with filing. Finally, I filed my tax returns and got my refund, so I was able to pay my attorney and officially get the process started. But, I'm absolutely terrified at what is going to happen next. I should point out, that I've never so much as had a parking ticket, so just being "in the spotlight" scares me to no end.
That said, a quick rundown of my situation in the hopes that someone can provide some insight/advice. I've been at my company for 12 years now. Steady income, nothing huge, but a steady job nonetheless. My mother lives with me (I file head of household) and I pay for all household expenses for the both of us. The only thing, until recently, that wasn't paid by me, was the rent. My step-father divorced her to separate assets (keep his money) but his verbal agreement with her over the years, is that he would always pay her rent. So, we lived together in a townhouse rented by my father's corporation (I am listed on the lease with my full name, then a dash, then the name of the corporation, as I was an officer of the corporation). Well, long story short, by mid-2008, the two corporations I owned (my mother and I had two home-based corps) went belly-up. Both were dissolved and over by the end of 2008. Meanwhile, during that time my father put me in the middle of a family dispute, and when he didn't like whose side I took. He disowned me.
Well, when he did that, he immediately stopped paying the rent. I was faced with having to figure out whether to keep a roof over our head, or pay my credit obligations, because the amount of credit I was granted was based on the fact I did not pay that (rather sizable) rent payment. I called all my creditors and for two solid months tried desperately to work with them to keep things afloat. By March of 2009, I couldn't keep anything afloat and stopped paying everything. We lost both mine and my mother's car, everything. I found a couple renting their condo that were willing to take a chance on me, sold most everything on Craig's List and moved into the smaller place (where we now live).
I would (honestly) not even be considering bankruptcy because most of the creditors have petered off, and the SOL is fast approaching for Virginia in terms of judgements. But, the old landlord is suing me personally (for $40k). I think he is under the mistaken impression that because the monthly rent checks were coming from my step-father's business, that somehow my step-father would (because he is rich) just "write a check" and settle. Obviously, that isn't an option (I haven't spoken to my step-father since the fight).
So, I spent all weekend going through bags and bags of documents, statements, collections letters. I organized everything. I have $130k in personal debt. Mostly consolidation loans, credit union lines of credit, and lots of store credit cards. On the business end, for the two defunct businesses, I have nearly $176k in Citibank business credit cards (this was at a time when Citibank gave out business credit cards like there was no tomorrow), and additionally, two personally guaranteed auto leases through my step-father's corporation that they are now going after me personally for ($64k).
The last piece of this story, is that in July of last year, I wound up in the hospital with a grand mal seizure. I came to find out that I have a brain disorder I was born with, and now have epilepsy. I am on a mid-to-high dosage of very strong anti-seizure medication, and I'm barely able to keep myself calm and save my job, so this stress is really pushing me over the edge. To make matters worse, my director at work had just pushed through during that time a 15% pay increase for me, which puts me about $15k over the Virginia means average, which scares me even more! (If I made then, what I make now, I might have been able to keep up, but back when I stopped making payments, I was earning significantly less!)
I am basically terrified that a trustee is going to see my debts and income and laugh me out of BK. Yet, I don't know any other way to stop the lawsuit by the former landlord. Also, my attorney told me to try and find any statements relating to the business credit cards to show that purchases were in fact for the business. Is this something the trustee might nitpick about?
As I said, this is all heightened by the fact that I'm supposed to (for the sake of my illness) not stress myself, yet I honestly feel like I am going to have a nervous breakdown because I just don't know how my situation is going to be viewed in court.
Can anyone offer any insight into my situation? Thanks in advance!
That said, a quick rundown of my situation in the hopes that someone can provide some insight/advice. I've been at my company for 12 years now. Steady income, nothing huge, but a steady job nonetheless. My mother lives with me (I file head of household) and I pay for all household expenses for the both of us. The only thing, until recently, that wasn't paid by me, was the rent. My step-father divorced her to separate assets (keep his money) but his verbal agreement with her over the years, is that he would always pay her rent. So, we lived together in a townhouse rented by my father's corporation (I am listed on the lease with my full name, then a dash, then the name of the corporation, as I was an officer of the corporation). Well, long story short, by mid-2008, the two corporations I owned (my mother and I had two home-based corps) went belly-up. Both were dissolved and over by the end of 2008. Meanwhile, during that time my father put me in the middle of a family dispute, and when he didn't like whose side I took. He disowned me.
Well, when he did that, he immediately stopped paying the rent. I was faced with having to figure out whether to keep a roof over our head, or pay my credit obligations, because the amount of credit I was granted was based on the fact I did not pay that (rather sizable) rent payment. I called all my creditors and for two solid months tried desperately to work with them to keep things afloat. By March of 2009, I couldn't keep anything afloat and stopped paying everything. We lost both mine and my mother's car, everything. I found a couple renting their condo that were willing to take a chance on me, sold most everything on Craig's List and moved into the smaller place (where we now live).
I would (honestly) not even be considering bankruptcy because most of the creditors have petered off, and the SOL is fast approaching for Virginia in terms of judgements. But, the old landlord is suing me personally (for $40k). I think he is under the mistaken impression that because the monthly rent checks were coming from my step-father's business, that somehow my step-father would (because he is rich) just "write a check" and settle. Obviously, that isn't an option (I haven't spoken to my step-father since the fight).
So, I spent all weekend going through bags and bags of documents, statements, collections letters. I organized everything. I have $130k in personal debt. Mostly consolidation loans, credit union lines of credit, and lots of store credit cards. On the business end, for the two defunct businesses, I have nearly $176k in Citibank business credit cards (this was at a time when Citibank gave out business credit cards like there was no tomorrow), and additionally, two personally guaranteed auto leases through my step-father's corporation that they are now going after me personally for ($64k).
The last piece of this story, is that in July of last year, I wound up in the hospital with a grand mal seizure. I came to find out that I have a brain disorder I was born with, and now have epilepsy. I am on a mid-to-high dosage of very strong anti-seizure medication, and I'm barely able to keep myself calm and save my job, so this stress is really pushing me over the edge. To make matters worse, my director at work had just pushed through during that time a 15% pay increase for me, which puts me about $15k over the Virginia means average, which scares me even more! (If I made then, what I make now, I might have been able to keep up, but back when I stopped making payments, I was earning significantly less!)
I am basically terrified that a trustee is going to see my debts and income and laugh me out of BK. Yet, I don't know any other way to stop the lawsuit by the former landlord. Also, my attorney told me to try and find any statements relating to the business credit cards to show that purchases were in fact for the business. Is this something the trustee might nitpick about?
As I said, this is all heightened by the fact that I'm supposed to (for the sake of my illness) not stress myself, yet I honestly feel like I am going to have a nervous breakdown because I just don't know how my situation is going to be viewed in court.
Can anyone offer any insight into my situation? Thanks in advance!
341 Meeting 12-16-2010 
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