WELLS froze an account we thought we were off, now what?????

[firsttime]

Long story short, we were on my mother's account, for safety sake. When we realised we were going to do Chapter 7, we took ourselves off. We never followed up to make sure it was done, as we signed the papers, etc. Fast forward, we filed and they froze her account because we're on it. They can't find the paperwork now...help! What can we do? We're 3 weeks away from our first meeting with the creditors, but she can't wait that long to not have money. I believe we can prove that it is indeed HER account, as she uses it 100%....we're devastated that we never followed up...we just didn't think this could happen. The person who originally sent the paperwork to our branch remembers the situation, but our local bank doesn't know what happened....

[tobee43]

Long story short, we were on my mother's account, for safety sake. When we realised we were going to do Chapter 7, we took ourselves off. We never followed up to make sure it was done, as we signed the papers, etc. Fast forward, we filed and they froze her account because we're on it. They can't find the paperwork now...help! What can we do? We're 3 weeks away from our first meeting with the creditors, but she can't wait that long to not have money. I believe we can prove that it is indeed HER account, as she uses it 100%....we're devastated that we never followed up...we just didn't think this could happen. The person who originally sent the paperwork to our branch remembers the situation, but our local bank doesn't know what happened....

this is a real mess! you really need to go into the bank and see that person who remembers that you took you both off the account. AND don't let wells fargo say they have to speak to that "back" room...that's their very favoritie place...i think it's a BIG room that all the wells fargo crazies sit and make stuff up. if that person will not help you get THEIR boss! i would refuse to leave the bank until they fixed the problem. i know i have had so many problems with wells fargo, it's unreal, and this is with GOOD things not what you are going through.

best of luck to you!!! and let us all know how you make out!

[LadyInTheRed]

The person who originally sent the paperwork to our branch remembers the situation, but our local bank doesn't know what happened....

Who is the person that sent the paperwork to your branch? Was it an employee of Wells Fargo? If so, I would lean on that person to get the account unfrozen. But, it may stay frozen until the Trustee okays the release of the funds.

Was the account listed anywhere on your petiton? If not, the trustee may think you were trying to hide the account. Even if you thought your name was off the account, the act of removing your name could be considered a transfer to an insider that should be reported on the statement of financial affiars. Let your attorney know what is going on. It will be better if the trustee learns of the account from your attorney instead of the bank. Hopefully, the trustee will agree to not pursue the account after the situation is explained.

It's too late for you, but for others with joint accounts that may read this: It would have been better for your mother to drain the existing account through regular spending and open an entirely new account in her sole name.

[LadyInTheRed]

tobee43, we seem to be following each other around today. LOL.

[tobee43]

tobee43, we seem to be following each other around today. LOL.

LOL!! yes! i think so. well, at least i'm in good company

[despritfreya]

This is the problem with Wells Fargo - illegally takes the law into its own hands. I will NEVER bank there.

I think the easiest way to deal with this is to get your Trustee to issue a letter telling the bank that the bk estate has no interest in the funds and that the bank can release them. This worked in one of my cases - mind you that I warn my clients not to have anything to do with Wells Fargo - but some simply don't listen or do not realize they are on a particular account.

Des.

[HHM]

Some behind the scenes stuff, FYI only.

Wells Farge has a computer system called ACER. Part of its task is to crawl PACER and continuously cross reference its account holders (credit cards, mortgages, deposit accounts etc) with BK filing, in real time. Max Gardner, a well known BK attorney in the foreclosure fraud arena relates a story where he was at the Wells Fargo service center and on the phone with his paralegal. The paralegal filed a BK, ACER flagged the BK before the paralegal received the confirmation of filing from PACER (we are talking a mater of seconds).

As Desp points out, try to get a letter from the trustee, it is well known problem with Wells Fargo, sounds like you tried to be proactive, but it just didn't work.

[IamOld]

Your lawyer may also want to remind them that what they're doing BK courts have said it's illegal...FIRMLY.

[firsttime]

Update. The account is still 'on hold", My mother in law never got notice from Wells saying the account was put on hold, Isn't that illegal? We have now gathered paperwork to show that it is her money in that account, not ours. I know there is a law in New York that says a bank can't hold an entire amount if it's a joint account and that my mother in law can show that my husband was on the account out of "convenience" and that it's solely her account. This is horrible. It's been 2 weeks and the money is still being held. And what I don't understand, is that they're holding more than twice the amount than owed. Any other ideas to get this going more quickly. This is making my mother in law sick, as they have her money. Our attorney mentioned that they might want to "trace" where to money is coming from and that's not a problem as it's pretty cut and dry. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.