Missing instructions

[mtbc]

One thing I've found is that, while the official government webpage with the list of bankruptcy forms has plenty with "Instructions" mentioned but no hyperlink to them, if I google for those instructions then often I can still find them on a government site.

I don't know how inapplicable parts of them are -- presumably there's something wrong with them because they've been removed from the main forms webpage -- but I have nonetheless found the ability to read these "missing instructions" very useful!

(Aside: it reminds me of the Army. They will retire field manuals months before they've issued a replacement. What you're meant to look at in the meantime is anyone's guess.)

[justbroke]

I don't remember if you said you have the NoLo Chapter 7 guidebook or not? The instructions on the forms are not that great anyhow.

[mtbc]

Yes, I have the 2010 ch. 7 Nolo book. It is quite good in some ways but doesn't quite appear to be a definitive comprehensive "bible". For instance, I plan to go to the courthouse today to see if the pro se law clerk there can tell me procedurally what I have to do to get the apartment lease assumed. The statement of intention looks clear enough, and something else I read (and now forgot what) told me that if I'm current on the rent, it needn't go in schedules D, E, F, just on G, but I may yet have to file a motion or something if the trustee doesn't.

[justbroke]

If you want to assume the lease, you file a Motion to Assume Unexpired Residential Lease. Procedurally, you'll have to ask if that's a contested matter and whether negative noticing is allowed or must you schedule a hearing.

The Trustee only assumes/reject leases where you are the owner of the property (are the lessor) and the Trustee can make money from it!

Unfortunately, the NoLo Guide and most other guides, including any instructions, do not cover things outside a "standard" filing. Assuming leases is not standard, but the NoLo Chapter 13 guide goes through assumption, but not in any detail to actually assume/reject a lease or executory contract.

[mtbc]

Wow, I'm surprised that people wanting to stay in the apartment they're presently renting is not a "standard" case. Though we're perhaps unusual in that, although our consumer credit situation is dreadful, we have always kept up on things like rent and utilities. Sure, we cut back to the most basic of cable, etc., and moved to a cheaper apartment before becoming unable to afford the previous, but we've stayed current on those non-credit things.

To my additional surprise, the pro se law clerk said that, seeing as I declared the lease and security deposit (which I included in my exemptions, it's held in my name on some weird basis) already in my schedules, she didn't see that I had to do anything further. (Frankly, from other stuff I've read, I'm doubtful on that, at least from a technical point of view.) From a practical point of view I wonder if it might be far easier to just sign a new lease with the same landlord after the dust has settled (I don't know at what point in the case I can, maybe only after it's actually closed); she knows about the bankruptcy and is perfectly happy for us to remain as tenants. Our last apartment, we just kept on paying the rent after the lease expired, and our landlord kept taking it, and that worked out fine, though is hardly an arrangement that a lawyer would advise!

Are there any resources you'd recommend that provide usable examples of things like motions to assume unexpired residential leases and typical procedural issues about filing them such as the details you mention? I'm guessing, nothing exists for the non-lawyer -- by nature I can cope with complex technical detail, but I don't have the legal background from a law degree that proper texts will assume -- but it seems worth asking just in case. Still, thank you very much for telling me rather more than other resources seem to have been able to! And for not minding my hijacking my own thread. (-: