Personal Property Appraisal completed

[FloridaGuy]

Hi all,

From a previous post you may recall the trustee disputed the value of our cars and examptions, and ordered an appraisal. I had a good discussion with the appraiser and will help ease other folks minds, too.

The appraisal took about 30-45 mins. She mainly took photo's of the large things, beds, dressers, appliances, etc. She did look in the clothes closets, but literally for about 5 seconds. She listed a few specific items. She browsed through the petition, and also a letter from the trustee, making sure she got what they wanted to confirm.

She told me about the misconceptions people have when getting an appraisal. Some people think they will go through and count their undies to value.... Others think they will come with a truck and take the stuff immediately.

The bad news is the trustee did not want them to appraise the cars. She sent a letter to my attorney, that we could pay for an appraisal (From a specific company) and she would accept those values instead of the retail book value she used. I have no extra money to pay for that! But am going to my lawyers office latter as we are amending the petition anyway... so I'll see who they suggested, and find the cost.

Oh, well. So, the story goes. All in all the appraisal itself was painless.

[liz417]

Gee, you've got a tough Trustee! What was the verdict of the appraisal of your stuff?

Good Luck!

[FloridaGuy]

Don't know yet

Don't really know how it came out until the report is available. (Hopefully in a couple days) She did say don't be alarmed if it seems higher than I expected.

It seems to go the opposite of what we are told. We're told to use garage sale, ebay, craigs list prices, etc. However for the appraisal, the amounts will probably be higher, that way when it goes up for auction, if there are no bidders... they can drop the price if needed.

The appraiser didn't say that out-right... but kind of in a 'round about way. And of course the trustee wants to recover as much money as possible. Remember they get a "commission" on any money recovered for the creditors.

Bah-humbug

[ready2puke]

So what does that mean to you? They take your stuff and auction it off? So your going to lose it all?

[Woah]

Ugh. I hope it goes well for you. This is all nuts. It seems like some trustees just want to make it hard. I can see liquidating businesses and cars and such, but your household stuff??? Don't you get some exemptions for it? I can't imagine in this day with all the stuff people are trying to sell on craigslist and such that there would be a very good market to pay much for your household goods. Try to keep a good outlook. It will be over soon.

[FloridaGuy]

Yep... we are surrendering it all, but that was our choice. Thanks to the trustee digging through our tax records, we found out that a deceased realative of my wife had left her some stock in a private company about 12 years ago. It's worth about 15K.

This now has a huge sentimental value for my wife... moreso than our stuff. We are trying to use all of our exemptions - $10K - to save as much of it as we can.

The trustee can have the rest... Both our cars are only worth about 5K bewteen the two of them. The trustee claims 10K for them. Unfortunately we only owe about $300 on one car. So we'll borrow one from family for a while.

The wife is even giving up her wedding ring... (Not worth much monitarily) but her choice. (We have been married 24 years!)

Now if we wanted to... based on discussions I've seen on the forum here, we have the option to buy back the stuff through a payment plan to the trustee. We're Not interested.

My biggest question is time frame. Basically from what the appraiser said, the auction is done based on photos... sight unseen. The stuff gets sold, then they call us for a time to arrange pick-up.

Does all this happen prior to the discharge date? I know it will take a while for the case to close (Creditors have an extra month after our discharge date to file a claim)... but discharge should be on-time. Argh.

[liz417]

Yep... we are surrendering it all, but that was our choice. Thanks to the trustee digging through our tax records, we found out that a deceased realative of my wife had left her some stock in a private company about 12 years ago. It's worth about 15K.

This now has a huge sentimental value for my wife... moreso than our stuff. We are trying to use all of our exemptions - $10K - to save as much of it as we can.

The trustee can have the rest... Both our cars are only worth about 5K bewteen the two of them. The trustee claims 10K for them. Unfortunately we only owe about $300 on one car. So we'll borrow one from family for a while.

The wife is even giving up her wedding ring... (Not worth much monitarily) but her choice. (We have been married 24 years!)

Now if we wanted to... based on discussions I've seen on the forum here, we have the option to buy back the stuff through a payment plan to the trustee. We're Not interested.

My biggest question is time frame. Basically from what the appraiser said, the auction is done based on photos... sight unseen. The stuff gets sold, then they call us for a time to arrange pick-up.

Does all this happen prior to the discharge date? I know it will take a while for the case to close (Creditors have an extra month after our discharge date to file a claim)... but discharge should be on-time. Argh.

Wow! I haven't heard of it going this far...I think that your Trustee thinks that you are going to want your stuff back and that's why they are doing this apprasial stuff...let them have it! See what they (the auction) can get for it...
Good Luck!

[JJL]

Stock has sentimental value...but the wedding ring you bought her doesn't? IDK sounds messed up to me. You would be much better served saving your stuff then that stock you didn't even know you had and could be worthless tommorrow.