homestead exemption on a vehicle

[confusedinVA]

Yet another question for all of you.

About a year ago, maybe longer, we were subpoenad to a meeting, not even sure what kind of meeting this was. It was our previous landlord. We had moved out because we just couldnt pay the rent anymore. We owed him about 1 months worth of rent. But in this meeting he stated a figure much higher. We were not represented and I was very unprepared. To make a long story short, there was a trustee, (I guess thats what he was anyway, from reading all of these posts) He was asking about our income and assets. Well the only thing we had to mention was my husbands 85 pickup and our 95 family van. Well the lawyer for our landlord and the trustee both said that the landlord could order the sherriff to come and pick up both vehicles. I contacted and attorney when we got home and found out that they couldnt touch my husbands truck because it was valued at under 2000. The van we had to put a homestead exemption on it. So we did.

My question is, will we have to do the same thing with the van when we file for bk or will the prior homestead exemption still apply?

I am getting the Nolon book today and I am so excited!!

[Minnymouth]

Okay, let me understand something here.....

You were subpeonad to a meeting and don't even know what kind it was....????? And over a year ago???

1. You have not hired an attorney yet, nor have you filed bankrutpcy yet....... RIGHT...........

2. Why would you have a meeting with a Trustee if you have not filed bankruptcy yet??? Were you ordered to court or contacted to come into an attorneys office regarding the landlord..... Did the landloard sue you (or go to small claims court) and get a judgment against you???

3. You contacted an attorney after this meeting and they told you to claim the homestead regarding your vehicle.....???


If you have not filed bankrutpcy yet, have not hired an attorney yet, I am under the impression that you just have a judgment against you by the landlord and he is checking out what assets you may have that he can take to justifiy the debt....

Now whether he can take those assets is another story...... he can put a lien against them...... but seize and sell....... he would have to go thru the Court to do anything......

Need more info on your situation.....

[confusedinVA]

Sorry about that, Yes, the old landlord does have a judgement against us. No we havent filed bk yet. We contacted the lawyer after they threatened to take the van for payment of the debt. We were instructed to do the homestead exemption and did so at that time.

I am not sure if the guy was a trustee or not. We were subpoenaed to go to the meeting and we did. It was the landlords attorney and another guy. From what I have read on here, he asked basically the same questions that a trustee would, thats why I thought he was possibly a trustee.

The van is safe according to the attorney we hired to do the homestead exemption.

[Minnymouth]

QUESTION,
At the time of this meeting and you had your attorney use a "homestead exemption", was the trustee-? under the impression that you had filed bankruptcy or was going too.....???

If this was a year ago and you have not filed, then it could backfire on you if they discover this......

And if you do file bankruptcy now yes you will have to claim the homestead exemption in your bankruptcy case to protect it...... if you can't exempt it anywhere else.....

[confusedinVA]

No, the attorney nor the trustee(?) was told we were debating bk. At that time we were still trying to figure a way out without filing bk. I did tell the lawyer that I hired to do the homestead that we were considering bk though.

I may need your help later on about where to put the info about the van on the forms. I am getting the Nolo book today and hopefully that will shed some light but if not, I will ask on this forum. Even if I have to list it as an exemption again that will be fine because it will still fall under the allowed amount that my husband and I have.

Thanks so much for helping.

[Bobby'sGirl]

Most states have exemptions to protect some assets against judgements

These may be the same or similar to those for BK filers. The landlord could only take difference between exemption on the van and selling cost of the van if it was a forced sale, and if on a home, then a lien could only be enforced on sale proceeds over the exemption amount when a home was later sold. This should not enter into the BK at all, except the lawyer may have to file to get lien removed if one was placed from a judgement before BK filing. And you need to state again in the BK petiton what you are claiming exempt under your state rules. You did not "use them up" in defending against the judgement. Get your lawyer to clear this up for you, and check out that chapter in the Nolo book. He has a good explanation of the exemptions systems. Also see the posting for Virginia under the Exemptions threads. http://bankruptcyforum.com/t281-virginia.html

[GoingDown]

I think what the original poster is talking about is a "Judgment Debtor Exam", also sometimes called a "Hearing of Assets." They can call for these after they get a judgment on you. The person who was asking you questions at the meeting was not a trustee. He was just an attorney and maybe a paralegal representing the landlord. This has nothing to do with bankruptcy because you haven't filed for bankruptcy yet.

Sometimes the judgment debtor exams are held in a court building, or as in this case, they can be held in an attorney's office. When they are held in an attorney's office, since you were not represented by an attorney at the time of the meeting, you can play dumb about a lot of questions, and make it really hard on them. Say that you don't understand their questions. Make them repeat themselves a lot. Say you don't understand what this has to do with the judgment, etc. Exert your 5th Ammendment rights to remain silent, quote the Miranda warning "I have the right to remain silent, anything I say can be used against me in a court of law, I have a right to an attorney, and if I can't afford one, then one will be appointed for me..." In reality, that only applies to criminal cases, not civil cases, and so you can be compelled to answer their questions. But in this case, you can claim that you didn't know that, or that you don't understand the difference between civil and criminal, and ask them to explain it to you, over and over. It's a way to really eat up the attorney's time, and with attorneys, time is money so they won't want to keep doing stuff like this to you.

And like what one of the other posters said, they can only seize your vehicle if its resale value exceeds the exemption for your state.

It's an expensive thing for them to do because they have pay a Sheriff a fee to come out and levy it, and they have to pay a fee to tow and store the vehicle until its value can be formally assessed by the Sheriff's office and if it has enough value, they will auction it off, which also costs them money. If there are any liens on the vehicle, they have pay them off before its title can be transferred into someone else's name. And any money they get from the sale over and above the amount of the lien will first have to go to you to pay for your exemption amount, and only after then, will they realize any profits from the sale of your vehicle. So, on most vehicles, they would end up spending more money than what they would get from it. So, it is rarely done. Its mainly just a big threat to scare you into paying them some money.