Question about Reaffirmation hearing

[mdo23]

I was just curious if anybody could tell me what happens during a reaffirmation hearing. How does it go and just generally what happens. Also, before my case was dischaged, i sold my mobile home for $7000. should i have informed my trustee?

[SinkingFast]

If the mobile home was yours when you filed, technically, yes, you should have informed the Trustee of the sale. The day you filed BK set the BK Estate. The mobile home was an asset of the BK Estate.

But there's your Homestead Exemption to consider too. The amount you can exempt depends on your State and/or Federal Exemptions, if your State allows for you to choose.

The Reaffirmation Hearing is for your benefit. The Court wants to be sure you understand that you are reassuming responsibility for the debt. That the debt will not be discharged as part of your BK. That you owe however much to whatever Lender and you will be contractually bound to pay. Basically, the Court wants to be sure you know what you're doing. You Reaffirmed freely and were not coerced in any way.

If you filed with an attny, the attny will have already reviewed your finances and assert the Reaffirmation does not pose an undue financial burden on you. If you filed Pro Se, the Court will look over your finances to make that determination.

[mdo23]

Ok, I did file pro se, will I need to bring any documents to the hearing, or will the court have all of my income information from where I originally filed? Also, can you tell me more about this homestead exemption? I live in West Virginia

[SinkingFast]

The Court should have everything you filed. So they will know your income and what you spend every month as shown on Schedule J.

You're safe on the Homestead Exemption IF the mobile home was your primary residence, as far as the Homestead allowance goes:

http://www.bankruptcyaction.com/wvexemptions.htm

You have a $25K Homestead Exemption in WVA. You cleared $7K, so you're good there.

Maybe others will chime in and suggest if and how you should handle telling the Court about the sale.

[mdo23]

Thanks for the information, I couldn't produce any reciepts on what we spent the money on, but it basically was to catch up current bills, clothes, basic necessity items. Could this be brought up in the reaffirmation hearing?

[SinkingFast]

Just one quick thought here,.........

Your Schedule J was likely completed with some sort of house payment being made on the mobile home, correct??!!

What did you do in the way of replacement housing?? Rent?? How much is that costing you per month. The Court will need to know that information as it has direct bearing on your disposable income.

[HHM]

Let's back up for a minute...

What debt are you reaffirming and why?

As for the mobile, I wouldn't mention it at this point and see what happens. But, strictly speaking, as SF already pointed out, you shouldn't have sold the Mobile Home while the BK was pending.

[mdo23]

Ok, I see what your getting at there. We are renting now, but even with the rent, it still leaves us in the black with our car loan, btw is only $155 a month, so if i understand the reaffirmation process, as long as we stay in the black with the car loan everything should be open and closed, correct?

[mdo23]

We are reaffirming our auto loan.

[HHM]

We are reaffirming our auto loan.

Ok, no problem. As SF has already pointed out, the hearing itself is a straightfoward process. The judge will probably ask you some questions (i.e. can you afford it, etc etc). It will take less than 5 minutes (once your case is called, you could be sitting there an hour, or more, waiting for your case to be called)

[mdo23]

I suppose it is simmiliar to the 341 Meeting, except instead of it being with the trustee it is actually with the judge for my district?

[ccidiot01]

Variation on this theme...What if you planned on reaffirming a debt (vehicle) and the court decides it would be a financial burden to keep it. Can the court force you to turn the vehicle in? And if so does that expense come off your debts with regards to the Means Test?