Filing Chap 7 without the Spouse

[plum3ria27]

hello! i have a ton of questions. I'm hoping that somebody would respond to me that has almost the same situation as mine. i'm in toledo, ohio.

i retained a lawyer back in april/may 2008, but i couldn't file because i didn't have the funds to pay the lawyer and the court fees. plus i had some other unexpected bills that needed to be paid.

anyway, my husband will not be filing with me. i had a checking account that automatically closed itself out back in dec 22, 2008 bec it had a 0 balance and had some major overdrafts in that account. my question is that my pay check gets deposited now in my husband's account since november 14, 2008 because he's in control now of paying the bills. obviously i'm not a joint in his account. is that account going to be frozen once i start filing after i get my credit counseling certification?

also, i understand that you have to show at least 3 months of bank statements up to the point where you are going to file. now after i file, if there's a little bit of extra money in the account, will the trustee ask for the most recent statements again once i sit down with him/her for that meeting? or are they just going to take a look at the statements that i submitted when i filed? my husband is wanting to buy a couch, after i filed, but i wasn't sure how the extra money after filing is going to affect anything.

then i have a 2004 honda accord in which my brother and i are both in the title. he's not filing obviously, so has anyone experience a situation that the trustee wouldn't touch the vehicle if it's under 2 people? i brought it to a dealership and they appraised it for 8500.. so i was told by my lawyer that it would be split between me and my brother so that would be like 4250 each plus the exemption amount i'm allowed which is 3225 which will leave 1025.00 then i still owe $700 left on the car. also my brother has been paying for the car all this time, do i need to show proof of something? obviously it's not going to show any of the payments in my accounts bec my income that time isn't enough to make a car payment.

i'm taking a credit counseling over the phone on the 16th and hoping to file on the 23rd of February.

[JRScott]

The lawyer did tell you the proper way to figure out equity in a car owned by more than one person. However you'd first subtract the 700 from the 8500, which then becomes 7800 and divide by 2. So each of you have a 3900 invested interest i the car. If the exemption only allows 3225 dollars then most likely you will need to scrape some money together for the Trustee. He could ask for the full 675 dollars or for a lesser amount. (It's also possible he may pass on it depends solely on his discretion).

If your money is deposited in your husband's account then you'll need to produce those statements, the Trustee is gonna want to know where your money is going. You'll also need your husband's income and what he contributes to the household expenses to fill out the means test for bankruptcy assuming you share the same household still.

It is best not to spend any money until after the 341 is concluded just in case and is most safe to wait til after discharge and the Trustee has told you he's not interested.

You don't mention the nature of your debt, was your husband a co signer or joint account holder on any of the debt?

Was any of the debt for school loans?

[plum3ria27]

no i don't have any school loans. my husband is not joint with me on anything except we have an account together that has $5.00 in it right now hahaah i haven't used that account since april 2008.

i just have all credit cards and 4 pay day loans. i actually called my lawyer again today. she said that i didn't need to provide any statements from my husband's account bec i was never an account holder in the first place. i'll just bring it with me when i'm filing. plus i asked her if we can buy a $500 dollar couch and she said yes bec. it was a household good item. plus she said there's an extra $1000 wild card that i can use to apply to something to get them exempt.

[plantlvr]

When I filed back in November, I didn't file with my husband. Even though we are divorcing, there was waiver he had to sign. Basically it just stated that he was waiving his right to any property or assets. Since he quick deeded the house to me and we had resolved our issues of who gets what, it was easy.

[plum3ria27]

mine might be alot less complicated than that. we don't own a house. we live in an apt which of course the rent will have to be listed as an expense.