Hi all. I'm new to the boards, but wish I had found this forum before filing!
DH and I just filed for chpt 7 on Friday, but now I have a lot of questions and concerns. of course I will also check with my lawyer tomorrow, but just wanted to see what you all think.
We were doing really well last year at this time. Our credit score was near 800, and we had no credit card debt. However, we decided to open up a business just last year, and unfortunately, the business did not thrive and took a nose dive as soon as we opened our doors. Because the business loan was personally guaranteed by us, as well as all business ccs, we were forced into a chpt 7 personal BK, and will be letting go of our house as well, since the business loan has a lien on our house. well, like i mentioned above, we just filed on 5/29, but now that i am reading these boards, I have some concerns.
1. Back in April, we made some big purchases, including two plane tickets to Asia equaling about $3800. I also made some reservations at hotels we would be staying at for about $300, twice. At around the same time, I finally replaced my lost wedding ring (lost it two years ago). This cost me about $1900, but on the resell market, it is only worth probably around $500-600, if even that since my stone is just a cz (a nice one, though : ) ). I used my debit card to make these purchases. The only reason why we decided to make these purchases was because we were getting a tax refund of around $21,000. Our lawyer said that he would be able to exempt this money because we were giving up our home and weren't planning to use the homestead credit. At the time, I didn't even think to watch my spending, since the lawyer did not mention anything about making sure not to make big purchases. I'm just afraid now that the trustee might question why we were making such big purchases. Do you think we will be okay, however, since the lawyer said he would've been able to exempt up to $21,000 cash? When we finally did get to filing, we only had $13,000 in our emigrant direct fund, and only about $1200 in checking. So I'm pretty sure that even if I hadn't spent that money, the lawyer would've been able to exempt it. So my question is, do you think we have anything to worry about?
2. When we started the business, we also borowed money from my MIL. She took out a home equity loan for us, and we have been making payments directly to her mortgage company from our bank account. I know that I will need to add her to our list of creditors (will have to have the lawyer make an ammendment tomorrow), and we will stop making payments to her beginning this month. My question is, do you think the trustee will go after her for this money? It's not like we suddenly just started making big payments because we knew we were filing. infact, we only made the minimum payments to the loan, and we've been doing this long before we even knew we would have to file. Since the inception of the loan, we've paid about $4500 over the course of the year. IF the trustee decides to go after my MIL, would my lawyer be able to exempt that money, since we still have room for exemptions?
3. Let's say if a relative decides to give us a gift in a form of a check for say like $5,000 to help us make a transition, but the check was given to us after the filing date but before the 431 meeting, will the trustee have a way of knowing if we deposit said check into a family member's account, who will then later give us the money?
Sorry this was such a long post, but we just have so many questions now. Please advice. Thank you all.
DH and I just filed for chpt 7 on Friday, but now I have a lot of questions and concerns. of course I will also check with my lawyer tomorrow, but just wanted to see what you all think.
We were doing really well last year at this time. Our credit score was near 800, and we had no credit card debt. However, we decided to open up a business just last year, and unfortunately, the business did not thrive and took a nose dive as soon as we opened our doors. Because the business loan was personally guaranteed by us, as well as all business ccs, we were forced into a chpt 7 personal BK, and will be letting go of our house as well, since the business loan has a lien on our house. well, like i mentioned above, we just filed on 5/29, but now that i am reading these boards, I have some concerns.
1. Back in April, we made some big purchases, including two plane tickets to Asia equaling about $3800. I also made some reservations at hotels we would be staying at for about $300, twice. At around the same time, I finally replaced my lost wedding ring (lost it two years ago). This cost me about $1900, but on the resell market, it is only worth probably around $500-600, if even that since my stone is just a cz (a nice one, though : ) ). I used my debit card to make these purchases. The only reason why we decided to make these purchases was because we were getting a tax refund of around $21,000. Our lawyer said that he would be able to exempt this money because we were giving up our home and weren't planning to use the homestead credit. At the time, I didn't even think to watch my spending, since the lawyer did not mention anything about making sure not to make big purchases. I'm just afraid now that the trustee might question why we were making such big purchases. Do you think we will be okay, however, since the lawyer said he would've been able to exempt up to $21,000 cash? When we finally did get to filing, we only had $13,000 in our emigrant direct fund, and only about $1200 in checking. So I'm pretty sure that even if I hadn't spent that money, the lawyer would've been able to exempt it. So my question is, do you think we have anything to worry about?
2. When we started the business, we also borowed money from my MIL. She took out a home equity loan for us, and we have been making payments directly to her mortgage company from our bank account. I know that I will need to add her to our list of creditors (will have to have the lawyer make an ammendment tomorrow), and we will stop making payments to her beginning this month. My question is, do you think the trustee will go after her for this money? It's not like we suddenly just started making big payments because we knew we were filing. infact, we only made the minimum payments to the loan, and we've been doing this long before we even knew we would have to file. Since the inception of the loan, we've paid about $4500 over the course of the year. IF the trustee decides to go after my MIL, would my lawyer be able to exempt that money, since we still have room for exemptions?
3. Let's say if a relative decides to give us a gift in a form of a check for say like $5,000 to help us make a transition, but the check was given to us after the filing date but before the 431 meeting, will the trustee have a way of knowing if we deposit said check into a family member's account, who will then later give us the money?
Sorry this was such a long post, but we just have so many questions now. Please advice. Thank you all.
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