It's been 5 yrs since this mess started and...HELP...

[timetofile]

I think it's time to file! It is for my husband only. I am trying to not file but I have so many ?'s. Our home is in foreclosure with sell date supposedly set in one month, we have not received a letter from lender yet. At any rate, we are small business owners. LLC, leases, and accounts are in my (wifes) name ONLY which was done at time of losses because DH having so many judgements and not able to open bank account, etc.

I am trying to figure out how to save our home. Can we do a 7 and 13 at same time? DH has avoided filing since our losses back in 2006, almost all previous business investment loss, around 600,000+ including foreclosure on rental propertie, vehicles, business equipement, etc. We have been trying to get back on our feet without filing but with house being taken, we cannot avoid. I am not planning to file...would this save or hurt our businesses. The businesses are starting to strive now. Will the businesses be taken from us if they are not in DH's name?
Dont know if he should file for 7 or 13, or at all? Dont know how to save home which is in DH's name.

During our devestating loss, people in the business got away with owing us big money due to the fact that we did not have money for attorney. Still dont know if trustee can do anything about that cause there were no legal docs signed on a $250,000 loan to the buyer of our 1st store that was sold in 2005, . Also leasing company pulled the rug out from under our feet in 2007 when we sold 2nd business in CA and forced us to walk away with $0 when we thought we were going to get at least $300,000 from the sale of that store. This was due to our business partner who filed a BK without us knowing. It has been a mess for the last few years. Oh, to top it off my mom passed away from pancreatic cancer in the mist of it all. We just need some help and relief but for now just any advice would help.

He was going to file a few years back before we opened our new store but we could not even afford the $7,000 that the attorney wanted fr us to file.

Through all this, God is good and has gotten us through all of it and we are still a happy couple, just super stressed
I dont even know what else to say other than I'm at the end of my rope with this whole thing.

[SunshineGal]

Hi Timetofile,

Your situation sounds very complicated. With the short post and not much info to go on, I'm going to say your best chance of saving the house and the business is probably a chapter 13. Set up 3 consultations with good attorneys - you do not want a large bk firm (Bk mill), but one who is familiar with business bks as well as personal, and find out what your options are.

Write down your major cancers, a list of your assets (both yours and DH's), your income and your expenses, and take that with you to the consolations. Also be sure to include the time lines of when you transferred the business into the wife's name and when you sold your other stores, etc.

I know it's all very over-whelming right now, but once you have a plan in place you will see light at the end of the tunnel. Best of luck to you and welcome to the forum!

SG

[tobee43]

SG gives excellent advise...

you may also want to explore the possibility of filing two bk's one for your business and one personally........depending on how your LLC is set up...it may protect you in certain personal liability situations...just a thought...however, go to as many FREE atty consults as possible and see which is the best route for you.

best of luck!

[timetofile]

I know it is very limited info, however, the business debt was on our first store under a sole prop that got sold in 2005. Our new businesses are both in new separate LLC's and not in my DH's name.

[tobee43]

i see, so you carried over the debt from the other business then....

[timetofile]

The debt just got left hanging and is DH's name and credit with judgements etc, none of it was ever able to get paid. When we sold our store in VA, we moved to CA w/ a business partner and he basically lost (stole) our investment of about $500,000 the stores we moved there to run with him did not do too well, except for one and when we decided to break up the partnership, we told him that for our losses, we would call it a clean breakup if we just kept the one successful store in which he agreed and had paperwork done in my (wifes) name to transfer business to me. We did not know at the time that he was going to file BK and when he did, the finance co. that held the note to the equipment stepped in and pushed us out of the sell of that store in which we thought we were going to get $300,000, it sold for $600,000. We were told that the business partner had no rights to transfer ownership and at this point we were flat broke and could not afford an attorney. We came back to VA with nothing but our home still here waiting for us. We saved it from being auctioned 2x's but this time is is 18 months behind and so that is why I think it is now time to file. Sorry for rambling but I guess it helps to get the thoughts out of my stressed out head

[minan]

Again, like replies, recommend getting as many consultations as possible. Make a list of all your assets, who owns what, expenses, bills, debts, etc...get this done beforehand as you'll want to paint a clear picture for the attys so they can best advise you. Don't leave anything out.