Discharged but far from over

[despritfreya]

I am sorry that you are having such a tough time. Is it ok for you to contact the Trustee? This, again, depends upon the Trustee. Some will not talk to debtors who are represented. Others will. Others will if debtor's counsel states such is ok. I typically do not have a problem with my client talking to the Trustee in an effort to work out payments. I always want to be kept in the loop but sometimes it is just quicker to get results without me being in the middle.

The only way for you to find out if your Trustee will talk to you is to call him. The worst he can say is "I can't talk to you".

Des.

[BananaCabana]

Even within the state of Florida the trustees seem to work very differently. Someone posted very useful information on this forum, a blog written about Orlando trustees and how they suggest a debtor brings in a certified check if they are hoping to buy-back an asset that isn't covered completely under exemptions. With the "cash" right there in front of them, they don't have to go through selling the asset, etc. and they are almost always more likely to accept the offer of the certified check, even if it is below the FMV of the item. Less work and instant payment.

I told my paralegal, who works in the Tampa trustee area, about this since it sounded like a great idea and we had enough cash to get a certified check. But she said she has never heard of anyone doing that before. She has been doing BK's for about 20 years. She can see the merit of the certified check thing but reiterated that is not how it is done in our district. That working out a buy-back happens at or after the 341.

Of course, after certain things have happened, we don't have that available cash any longer so we couldn't do it now, anyway. But, I thought it might be of interest how different districts/trustee areas do things very differently.

Now I am curious what FL area you are in that has a difficult trustee. It can be very difficult not getting answers from an attorney you are paying for. Plus, the offices are always so busy you are sure something will get missed or screwed up. I sometimes even question the information my paralegal gives me after reading this forum. Still, I have paid them to be my legal expertise, so I will put my trust in them to do the best possible for my situation.

[TBA]

We did a buyback in FLA - I took a pay advance from my employer and offered the ttee about 2k less than the appraisal. The ttee accepted the offer and my employer wrote a check directly to the ttee.

This is assuming you have the cash or can get it though.

[tobee43]

Even within the state of Florida the trustees seem to work very differently. Someone posted very useful information on this forum, a blog written about Orlando trustees and how they suggest a debtor brings in a certified check if they are hoping to buy-back an asset that isn't covered completely under exemptions. With the "cash" right there in front of them, they don't have to go through selling the asset, etc. and they are almost always more likely to accept the offer of the certified check, even if it is below the FMV of the item. Less work and instant payment.

I told my paralegal, who works in the Tampa trustee area, about this since it sounded like a great idea and we had enough cash to get a certified check. But she said she has never heard of anyone doing that before. She has been doing BK's for about 20 years. She can see the merit of the certified check thing but reiterated that is not how it is done in our district. That working out a buy-back happens at or after the 341.

Of course, after certain things have happened, we don't have that available cash any longer so we couldn't do it now, anyway. But, I thought it might be of interest how different districts/trustee areas do things very differently.

Now I am curious what FL area you are in that has a difficult trustee. It can be very difficult not getting answers from an attorney you are paying for. Plus, the offices are always so busy you are sure something will get missed or screwed up. I sometimes even question the information my paralegal gives me after reading this forum. Still, I have paid them to be my legal expertise, so I will put my trust in them to do the best possible for my situation.

you are so correct on that observation Banana, each of these districts........ it seems as though the trustees here in florida have a different method to their maddness! if it worked one way for one, it certainly may not work the same for another, even if their circumstances seem similar.

our atty claimed and it seemed that their firm had relationships with most of the trutees in our area. so, they would say to us, if we get her, it's mostly likely going to be like this, or if we get him it may go like this.
it's actually one of the reason's why we picked this firm as they had relationships with these people and we could at least get a bit of a heads up, although, i'm certainly it doesn't always work out that way.

TBA we were lucky and didn't have to do the buy back because we were able to take advantage of the "wildcard" exemption since we didn't own a home at the time. really our car was our only assets then.

[JackBondLove]

My trustee demanded $7.5K - $5K for the house being worth more than the exemption (hard to disprove since I had purchased the home on the eve of filing for BK!), and the rest for a lot of non-essential items that I heavily discounted (perhaps I could have discounted a bit more more). I was able to negotiate about 1/3 of that away by claiming that the sale of the house would incur a real estate commission, and the trustee took it. (I had about a $5K Roth IRA that I was able to immediately distribute to pay him.)

If your trustee has done something similar (i.e., not counting the real estate commission), you could do the same. You could also ask for thinner, but longer terms. When do you plan to take Social Security?

[webworks227]

Thank you everyone for your time to write. It appears that I have a very very difficult trustee. And the fact that they get 25% commission I think is not only a conflict of interest but a big incentive to cease what little you have. My challenge became my 9 yrs old car which was paid off and therefore had $3500 worth of equity after any exceptions were applied. I used the homestead exception so I was not allowed very much.

I have talked to my paralegal because my lawyer is never available and apparently feels that this trustee cannot be talked to or negotiated with. I did ask earlier when his decision came in if we could bargin with a cash payment for less. I was told no. It seems no on everything.

I was given 6 months to make this payment and no iindication of any demand of a certain amount so I am going to send a payment this week for what I can and just hope that by the time I approach the last 3 months that I can increase the payments to have this paid off by the end of the 6 months he gave us.

Can you imagine you have to go back into debt to get out of debt? The trustee could have let this go and he said so at the 341 meeting and then apparently changed his mind at the last minute.

I am differently part of the 99% under employed and living on a shoe string. I had to borrow the legal fees from a friend so the stress is really getting me. I think this 2005 BK law was written in favor of the banks and the trustees and they have forgotten about those of us that through no fault of our own have found ourselves in fianacial difficulty. Alas it is what it is.

Thank you everyone for your kind responses and I wish all a recovery from the situation we all seem to have gotten in.

[webworks227]

Sorry regarding the Social Security I just applied so I probably won't get a check until April. Which I will have to use to pay the balance owed. Based on the 6 months I must pay the amount owed by the first of June. My SS is not going to be much probably about $800 So I will send what I can over the next 3 months and try as I said to increase the amount when I start getting my social security checks and just pray.