Chp 7 341 yesterday - Property inheritence

[boomerkae]

My husband and I had our 341 yesterday. We arrived half hour earlier per attny instruction; he arrived 5 minutes post hearing time, as did the trustee. We suspect they were out to lunch toether. OUr attny's cases where called first, out of order from the posted list.

So we were second, things went well until we got to property. My husband will be inheriting 9 acres of undeveloped land, to be carved out of 45 acres with a house. His step brother inherits the house and the remaining property. Hubby's stepmother passed last year (who he is set to inherit from), but stepbro has not filed the will, wasn't intending too anytime soon. When we sit down, our attny tells the trustee, these are the folks with the property I was telling you about....

We got to that section, and the trustee asks questions. Prior, we provided a copy of the will, and a real setate agents estimation of property value. There is a note still on the property.

So the Trustee decides to leave the case open because he wants to see the probate papers. What? Post hearing, the attny says we need to either have the property surveyed and valued for our 9 acres OR show probate papers. THen he tells us that that particular attny is pretty good about taking payments for up to three years if the property is worth more than we expempted. The only other thing the trustee quesitoned us further on was the value of the classic car my husband has (which isn't good).

OK, so what's the deal with forcing the will to probate or showing survey docs? Anyone have any idea? I'm not getting a lot of warm and fuzzies about the attny/trustee relationship right now either.
I won't be able to get back online for a few days to take redirects/requests for more info, but would appreciate folks thoughts until then.
Thanks!

[daylate]

No clue as to your situation but the "ex parte" (learned from years of TV watching-LOL) conversations don't seem particularly ethical. Good luck.

[despritfreya]

The inheritance and classic car along with everything you own or have an interest in are assets of the bk estate, subject to any allowed exemptions. The Trustee’s job is to liquidate assets if there is any value over the allowed exemptions. He generally does not liquidate assets that have no real value such as a broken down clunker or an extra TV. He is looking for assets that will produce a dividend, after cost of liquidating. As a result, he needs to get a feel for the value of a particular asset. Personal property and real estate (that is not tied up in litigation) are typically easy to value. But valuing something out of the ordinary, say an inheritance like you husband's, is more elusive.

As it relates to the inheritance, I am assuming you are using the $6k wild card - but I am not familiar with Maryland exemptions. Since you are trying to protect the inheritance I would presume the burden is upon you to support the value you have placed upon it. If there is value over the allowed exemption and you do not "purchase" the bk estate's interest in it the Trustee will either sell the asset to the highest bidder (who will probably be the step brother since it makes sense that he attempt to secure 100% of the property) or take steps to force the probate of the will. Any sale will have to take into account the exemption.

As it relates to the classic car, I do not see any Maryland exemption that can be used to protect it but I am not sure. If there is no exemption the Trustee will sell it unless you cut a deal with him.

Des.

[LadyInTheRed]

No clue as to your situation but the "ex parte" (learned from years of TV watching-LOL) conversations don't seem particularly ethical. Good luck.

Ex parte conversations between the trustee and attorney happen all of the time. They often communicate about possible issues before the 341. The fact that they did it over lunch really shouldn't cause any concern unless there is evidence that the attorney is not adequately representing the client's interests. There's nothing here to suggest the attorney is not adequately representing his client.

[daylate]

Ex parte conversations between the trustee and attorney happen all of the time. They often communicate about possible issues before the 341. The fact that they did it over lunch really shouldn't cause any concern unless there is evidence that the attorney is not adequately representing the client's interests. There's nothing here to suggest the attorney is not adequately representing his client.

Dang, there goes the movie plot line-seriously thanks for the info

[LadyInTheRed]

Dang, there goes the movie plot line-seriously thanks for the info

LOL. Don't give up. Movies inaccurately portray the legal system all the time! You are only limited by your imagination.

[boomerkae]

THanks, Des.

When the issue with the property came up, the paralegal on our case juggled our expemptions to cover $5K for the property, and about $500 less than value on the car, and didn't exempt part of household goods, clothes, things like that to be sure we were within our expemptions on the things that meant the most to us. They said that the trustee couldn't reevaluate what we had exempted, say to exempt all of our clothes and then say now you don't have enough for that property. We went into it knowing that we may have to pay a little to keep the car. I guess I'm worried and concerned as we filed ch13 and our circumstances changed (Husband out of work, and we fell below median).I am not clear why, but the attny decided to dismiss rather than convert the day before confirmation on the 13. I'm freaked out that something will happen in the 7 and we won't be out of this mess we are in. We did realize that there was another asset (camera) not listed on our inventory at the meeting, and are giving the value to the attny this week. he said he would decide then if we needed to amend. That was totally an oversight, it's my husbands and I created the list last summer; I glossed right over it. Fortunately, trustee didn't seem concerned with the tax return that we already used (on legimiate expenses).

I am just WORRIED something will happen bad. 341 was on Friday the 13th!