A few questions

[Caleth]

I am not sure if this is the correct place but here goes. I have a few questions that some may or may not know the answers to. I have emailed my lawyer but have not heard back yet. For reference I am in Texas so full homestead protection but as I understand no cash can be protected.

2021 was not kind to me. My house flooded in May. It took months to get the insurance/contractor situation sorted out and they started on home restoration in October. My lawyer had worked out all of the numbers that I qualified for a 7 around the same time but we were waiting to file when my house was done and I could use what was left of the money I had in my account to pay for having the leaves trimmed back and any other things that needed to be done to the house before filing.

Fast forward to today and I have a house that is still not finished. Maybe in a few weeks. One problem that I am now running into is that I am going to be receiving a check in the neighborhood of 4-5k to replace the contents that were lost in the flood. Should wait until I get and spend the check for the contents? Spend it on replacing the contents of course. I may have to use some of it to hire another painter as the one done by the restoration company looks like a 3yr old did it.

My lawyer emailed me and said we may need to see if I still qualify for a 7 since it has been so long but wouldn’t we have had to forfeit the contents money if we had filed right away? Also I forgot the insurance is reimbursing me for a $600 electric bill that I had in the summer when they were running fans to dry out the house? Same with this? Do I give that up also?

Sorry so long and hopefully someone has some ideas all the rules are so confusing to me and I just want to do everything legally and above board

Thanks

[flashoflight]

Every trustee is different, but the insurance money sounds like bonus money to me if you don't spend it down in a legitimate way. If you can afford to replace the contents, paint, and pay the electric bill prior to receiving the check, you can afford to give all of the non-exempt portion to the poor unsecured creditors. I heard one of the BK lawyers on the Internet mention in a post somewhere that he can figure out how to make up to $20k "spent" legitimately before filing. Chapter 7 filing date is the snapshot date and you want it to look good at that day with money spent legit if it can't be completely exempted. Don't do stuff like ATM withdraw to cash. That's not legit.