Title missing on car

[AngelinaCat]

Go ahead and call your Trustee's office. Chances are the assistant is the one you will talk to, and you will be told that you need to speak with your attorney. Simply tell the assistant that you have been unable to communicate with your attorney and you need to ask a 'procedural question' about amending your schedules and that you have a time problem.

We had to do something similar because our useless attorney was about as useful as yours.

Good luck.

[doomed]

Thanks Angelina. I'm going to try my attorney one more time tomorrow, then the trustee. He doesn't have an assistant, though. Small town, he's a lawyer in the trustee rotation.

[doomed]

Ok, update. My idiot lawyer finally "emailed" me back after promising to call. He's saying that me and my husbands car exemptions cannot be spread out over 2 vehicles. Yes, we can double our exemptions (5k each). We used my husbands 5k for his car and supposedly some of mine, which I thought we hadn't. So, can you only use your exemption towards one vehicle and then he gets to sell the other without giving you your exemption? Anyone have any input on this?

[free2breathe]

I have searched Maine statutes and do see 2. Motor vehicle. The debtor's interest, not to exceed $5,000 in value, in one motor vehicle. [ 2001, c. 306, §2 (AMD) .]
However, if you are allowed to double exemptions, and each of you are considered a "debtor" under the bankruptcy petition, it seems that it should cover one car per debtor. I'm still searching to see if I can find anything that defines in a more understandable fashion.

I did find this on one Maine attorney's website "The amounts of the exemptions are usually doubled when a married couple files together." So, is the sticky point your attorney is trying to hang up on here the fact that the exemption for "one car" is doubled, or does the exemption allow you to exempt two cars up to $5000 each (which seems like the logical answer to me!)

[doomed]

Thanks so much, free2breathe. Looking at our schedules, he listed it as 2009 Scion (Wife - 3,000), 2009 Scion (Husband - 3,000). So apparently because he split up our exemptions for my husbands car, we can't use the leftover for mine?? So that 4k leftover just disappears and can't be applied to my car? I'm not trying to keep the car but if I'm owed the rest of my exemption, I'm not going to let the trustee have it. Lord knows we've already been raked over the coals by our lawyers incompetence -- from a no asset bankruptcy to so far, writing the trustee checks totalling $6,000, plus $1500 we have to write him for husbands wages, and our tax return next year. . . I'm not giving him any more if I don't have to.

[free2breathe]

doomed, how much is the second car worth?

[doomed]

doomed, how much is the second car worth?

The 2nd car is worth about 12k. Obviously 4k wouldn't protect it, I'm not trying to keep it, but I'm not trying to give it to the trustee free and clear if I'm owed my exemption.

[free2breathe]

Exactly. I don't see why the attorney cannot just amend Schedule C, list husband's vehicle - $5000 and wife's vehicle - $5000. In fact, I think I'd insist on a very reasonable answer as to why he won't do that.

Is the Scion worth more than $6k? Seems to me like if you are each allowed $5000 and the Scion is worth more, he should have been able to exempt the entire $5000 for each of you just based on the way he listed the $3k apiece.

Sorry for the multiple edits, but my head is spinning. If he's basically saying that the entire $10,000 can only be applied to ONE vehicle, then it would be wise, I'd think, to use the max exemption on the car that has the greatest value?

[doomed]

free2breathe, I emailed him saying exactly that. This attorney has been awful and incompetent and screwed us over so royally, so I'm not taking his answer sitting down. He has been wrong on EVERYTHING so far and has lost us so much. This is our last ditch effort at having something go right for us. But, in the end, my sons medical debts are gone and he's been a healthy first grader so far this year, and this bankruptcy hasn't put me into full labor yet, so things aren't so bad.

Just saw your edits - the Scion is worth 12k, but we owe 6700 on it, giving it equity of 5300. $6700 is what we owe on it now, not what we owed when we filed, so not sure why he put us down for 3k each.

[free2breathe]

Always a sunny side to look at, if we open our eyes, right?

[despritfreya]

My Best Case program sets up Maine's exemptions similar to my State's therefore, assuming the actual Statute reads like my State's

Husband is entitled to a vehicle with no more equity than 5k;
Wife is entitled to a vehicle with no more equity than 5k;

OR

Husband & Wife are entitled to ONE vehicle with no more equity than 10k.

Schedule C can be amended to MAXIMIZE the allowed exemption. If that means moving the 10K into one vehicle and leaving the other exposed then so be it. You can amend schedules at any time before the case is closed. Once you amend Schedule C the Trustee has 30 days to object. He would have no basis to object.

By the way, placing an exemption on a vehicle with little or no equity thus exposing one with a lot of equity makes no sense.

Des.

[doomed]

despritfreya, our case has already closed, on November 30th. We didn't know the car was "ours" as the bank converted it to a signature loan just 2 weeks before we filed. We listed my husbands car as reaffirming and my car as giving up, as I owed more than it was worth (not knowing they removed their lien and converted my loan). So the bank has NO security interest in my car and will not be picking it up.

[free2breathe]

So, you are looking at him having to petition to reopen the case to amend the schedule. This takes more thinking. $5300 equity protected the way you have it now, but then the trustee gets to claim the $12,000 car? My brain's too fried tonight to try to figure out all the numbers.

What do you think, Des?

[despritfreya]

Our case has already closed, on November 30th. . .

That does put a twist in my post. Wonder if you can re-open it for the purpose of amending Schedule C, if doing so helps. I have never tried such a move.

Des.

Seems f2b is thinking the same thing, even though his brain is fried.

[doomed]

Thanks guys, I really have no idea how it would work. My brain is fried too, twins'll do that, lol. My attorney has been "contacting" my bank about our vehicles since this all started and never got a hold of anyone, so my DH's car was not re-affirmed even though we put we were re-affirming it in our paperwork, and obviously we'd of found out this car has no lien and is part of our estate had he actually done any work, but I digress. I have NO idea what we're supposed to do, I just don't wanna hand over this vehicle to the trustee because my lawyer once again screwed up, if there's something I can do.