Company still saying we owe them, 5 months after discharge, details inside

[koruption]

Good afternoon all, long time no talk!

The skinny of things: Filed pro-se in early May. Did everything right, got discharged by August. Everything fine, a few debts that weren't on credit report were missed, but they aren't an issue anymore. We even got a $3200 check from a complaint we filed on a quick-loan place. (They took a significant amount of money from our account over a month after they were served with the original order).

But we have one creditor... I don't know what to do with.

They were a "buy it here but pay mega-interest" kinda place, for some appliances that were necessary. In the Bankruptcy, we listed their items as Exempt under value clauses, and heard nothing back about it. No reaffirmation on them, and they haven't asked for the item back (Which we know they technically could).

Also, important to note: No reaffirmation agreement was ever signed.

Now here it is 5 months later, and we have gotten 4 phone calls and 3 letters this week. "Give us our money, you need to give us our money". We (both my wife and I) told them to come pick up their crap (We can afford to replace them, the bk truly transformed our lives). But they refuse to, saying that we still owe them money, they don't want the items.

I did look again at the discharge - it was a standard discharge, and they were included in it, no special mention of them.

Do i ignore them and if they put it on the credit report, file a petition with the agencies?

thanks as always!

[free2breathe]

Keep track of every phone call and letter. The debt was discharged, they are in violation of the permanent injunction. Let them know when they call that you have proof that their debt was discharged. Keep a recorder by your phone if you can, and when they call, immediately tell them you are recording the call. If it doesn't stop their collection efforts, contact an attorney about pursuing legal action against them. The courts do not look kindly on creditors that violate the injunction.

[AngelinaCat]

Along with what free2breathe recommended, send them by certified mail, with return receipt, a letter stating that their debt was discharged on such and such date, and that they are breaking the law. Site the applicable law in the letter and send a copy of the Discharge Order.

Also send courtesy copies of this correspondence to your Trustee and the Judge who signed your order. That should shut them up. If they persist, then see about hiring an attorney or talking to your Trustee about this.

[dneil]

yes... I believe there can be a hefty fine for companies who violate the order, too.

[AngelinaCatHub]

If you have a shark lawyer available, this would be a great opportunity to teach those jerks a lesson and then have enough left over for some great chocolate covered cherries for the Mrs. come Feb 14. 'Hub

[koruption]

If you have a shark lawyer available, this would be a great opportunity to teach those jerks a lesson and then have enough left over for some great chocolate covered cherries for the Mrs. come Feb 14. 'Hub

Sounds good. I pulled out the bankruptcy forms just to be double sure, and there was no mistake made on my end, it's solid.

So we signed some letters, had them notarized and sent. We already dinged one company for messing us with this, I would love to ding a second. Not out of monetary game, just to show them they can't do this to us.

[AngelinaCat]

We had a Medical Provider try to appeal to the Court that THEIR claim should be 'prioritized' above anyone else's. Our major debt was and is to the IRS. That claim was rejected, (and probably laughed at behind the scenes.)

Then after we were Discharged, they tried to come at us with threatening letters, et al., just as you have been. What I wrote in my post above is what we did to handle them. When the debt was sold to a CA, and a round of new letters came, we responded the same way. That debt has now gone away.

The pity of it is, that the doctors involved did an excellent service in caring for me when I broke my arm and knee. If the Billing part of the outfit had not been so contrary, after Discharge, I probably would have tried to pay the doctors back. But because of the obtuseness of the Financial/Billing part, they ALL lost.

[justbroke]

Unfortunately, you are pro se so you can't go to your attorney. You may, however, want to shop around for an attorney who will take this on contingency! There are some bankruptcy attorneys that will do this, and it's easy money for them since this appears, based only on the information provided, that it's a solid and egregious violation of the discharge injunction.

If you chose to do this on your own, find out the procedure for re-opening your case and filing a COMPLAINT (Adversary Proceeding (AP)) against the creditor. Do not do the injunction violation as a motion, just because the complaint process is much more powerful in this case! You'll have to brush up on a lot of procedural items, but you could win the AP. I highly suggest, though, that you do the AP through an attorney on contingency. The attorney will earn fees, and you should be able to get actual and punitive damages.