The sheriff arrived today - plot thickens

[LostOne0069]

If your business has no assets and only debt... why not let it fold and just open a new one with a slightly different name? Then both you AND your business will have a "fresh start".

[Minnymouth]

Yes, is your going for the "fresh start" - get it all the way around in your life, not just half of it............

[catwhisperer]

If your business has no assets and only debt... why not let it fold and just open a new one with a slightly different name? Then both you AND your business will have a "fresh start".

Because it may cost more to close the business than to just pay the debts. The vendors is only $6000, the line of credit is $14,000. We have established and, believe it or not, good credit with a ton of vendors that took 10 years to build. You may, however, be correct but for right now it is cheaper to pay off the little debt than go through the hell of restarting. I really love the work I do, just had a spouse that didn't sell quick and fast enough. From what I read, closing a business is worse than root canal.

[catwhisperer]

Wenderful,
Thanks for your post. Just had another bad night of sleep but you are right. We have the lawyer that is suing us for our vendor debt that we will be talking to on Monday. If they do not accept our repayment, we will just close down the business. We have a friend who is a CPA who can help us do the closing. After thinking, we can go to the auction and buy back the stuff for pennies on the dollar and restart the business. Not our #1 choice but we can do it. We'll still definitely file Personal Chapter 7 and that will stop the personal guarantees we may or may not have. There is a light at the end of the tunnel - just wish it was the Lehigh Tunnel and not the Lincoln Tunnel!

[djk]

Wenderful,
Thanks for your post. Just had another bad night of sleep but you are right. We have the lawyer that is suing us for our vendor debt that we will be talking to on Monday. If they do not accept our repayment, we will just close down the business. We have a friend who is a CPA who can help us do the closing. After thinking, we can go to the auction and buy back the stuff for pennies on the dollar and restart the business. Not our #1 choice but we can do it. We'll still definitely file Personal Chapter 7 and that will stop the personal guarantees we may or may not have. There is a light at the end of the tunnel - just wish it was the Lehigh Tunnel and not the Lincoln Tunnel!

Personally I think it would be to your best interest going forward to be more forthcoming in the particulars of your case. IMHO you have now created a
ambiguous presentation of the actual *facts* of your situation. In particular the "personal guarantess" you "may or may not " have. Just exactly what is up cat? Loans or lines of credit can be made on personal signature or with
tangible property as collateral. You come here seeking advice and opinion but offer not much in specifics.

[catwhisperer]

I am not trying to hide anything or not be forthcoming. The business debt that the sheriff arrived for should not have been personally guaranteed, we still do not believe it is, but they inventoried personal possessions. We have 5 other bills due that we do not believe are personally guaranteed either. The bank line of credit we do know is personally guaranteed.
See - we had a lawyer treat us like we were being fraudulent and we aren't, and I almost sensed you thought we were too. We always wanted to be able to pay these debts, the judgments have made this impossible.

[catwhisperer]

Hi Cat -- is this a different judgement from the one on the trailer that was repo'ed and you owed a deficiency balance of $6,000?

Yes, maybe that is where the confusion is.
We have a judgment against us for $2500 for a business vendor - items we purchased for resale that we were unable to pay for. That judgment was awarded March 2005! The sheriff just arrived this week with a Writ of Execution to seize property to pay the judgment. They listed personal property which should not have been listed because we did not personally guarantee that purchase.
The judgment that is coming up for a hearing on July 31 is for a personal RV trailer that was repossessed and sold at auction and the bank is suing us for the balance due.
That is why we feel that the personal Chapter 7 will take care of most issues for us because the business can repay it's debts since we have another source of income to start paying personal bills but the personal debts are way too excessive to be repaid. The business can make more money over the next 5 years than it would be worth just shutting down. We get reorders that take no effort, the last 9 years have been spent getting customers, just never enough. Right now, the business costs next to nothing to run, which is why we can start repaying debts and it can become profitable (which it is already doing since we no longer need to draw a salary from it.).