Just when things seem to be on an even keel.....

[arkienurse]

DH came in earlier this week with the announcement that he and his 3 sisters were going with my MIL to meet with a lawyer about her property. My MIL is over 70 and in not so good health. She has reached a point that she doesn't think she will be able to pay the property taxes this year. So as of next week, DH ( and I- community property state) will own her house and 10 acres of land. In name only. She will live there until she leaves this world, if I have to move in and take care of her myself. But now we have to pay the taxes( only $250 or so). And I am so worried that it will affect our BK, but hope not. We are in a 100% payback, so surely the trustee will leave us alone, right? Will be calling lawyer next week about this, but I won't have time to call until Wednsday. My job will keep me fully occupied during all the normal business hours Mon and Tues

And I have been working on my budget, getting ready to see if we can get a modification on our payments since DS's SS is gone after next month. Does anyone know if I can keep the amounts in my original budget, just increasing the ones that have increased( such as my auto insurance, utility bills, gasoline and food)? Some of the things that were budgeted are over the actual amount we spend- for example- clothing. The lawyer put down 300 a month for our budgeted amount of clothing( 6 of us in the house). I have yet to spend that actual amount, but do I have to change it in the budget since she accepted that number 2 years ago? I could probably spend that much, but I am currently using it to buy groceries, as I wasn't really accurate on that amount and the prices have risen a bit to boot.

[aa06a47]

DH came in earlier this week with the announcement that he and his 3 sisters were going with my MIL to meet with a lawyer about her property. My MIL is over 70 and in not so good health. She has reached a point that she doesn't think she will be able to pay the property taxes this year. So as of next week, DH ( and I- community property state) will own her house and 10 acres of land. In name only. She will live there until she leaves this world, if I have to move in and take care of her myself. But now we have to pay the taxes( only $250 or so). And I am so worried that it will affect our BK, but hope not. We are in a 100% payback, so surely the trustee will leave us alone, right? Will be calling lawyer next week about this, but I won't have time to call until Wednsday. My job will keep me fully occupied during all the normal business hours Mon and Tues

And I have been working on my budget, getting ready to see if we can get a modification on our payments since DS's SS is gone after next month. Does anyone know if I can keep the amounts in my original budget, just increasing the ones that have increased( such as my auto insurance, utility bills, gasoline and food)? Some of the things that were budgeted are over the actual amount we spend- for example- clothing. The lawyer put down 300 a month for our budgeted amount of clothing( 6 of us in the house). I have yet to spend that actual amount, but do I have to change it in the budget since she accepted that number 2 years ago? I could probably spend that much, but I am currently using it to buy groceries, as I wasn't really accurate on that amount and the prices have risen a bit to boot.

Have her put it in a trust, I do not think it would be good to put it in your name.

[13inOR]

As far as the budget goes, it would seem like the amounts they allowed wouldnt go down just because you had a decrease in income.
But----Like AA, I am worried about the house deal, I would check into that before I did it. You mentioned you are in a 100% plan now, but if you try to get your plan amended due to loss of SS, they may look at the home as an asset and not allow you to amend your plan. Who knows, but it seems like not a good idea to me.
I would just ask the attorney first.

[aa06a47]

Yes, they will look at the home as an asset. It may not affect anything as long as you stay 100%, but in the event of future income reductions / job losses / drastic changes in expenses, you don't want to own that home, or have it in your name. It will become the property of the US trustee. It already sounds like you may be going after an amendement to your income/expense statement to drop your payment.

[arkienurse]

I am worried about having it in our name also. DH promised me he will contact the lawyer doing the paperwork this week. He isn't worried about it, but that is another story. However, the thought occurred to me last night- if worse comes to worse, perhaps we could use this as collateral to get a loan for an early payoff? There happens to be no debt owed on MIL's home. They were smart and saved until they had enough to build, and then FIL was a carpenter and did most of the work himself. It is a nice little house, and I see DH and myself living there eventually. This place we "own" is falling apart on us, and we haven't the money right now for really proper upkeep.

And I am still planning on paying 100%. My original plan was for 50 months. Because several people didn't file claims, we are looking at being finished in 40 months. So If I were able to show an income reduction that qualifies us for a reduced payment, I am sure the trustee would extend the payment plan by 10-20 months. But in looking at my expense/income sheets I think she is going to laugh at any request to reduce the payment. I still come up with about the same amount of disposable income that we had when we filed. Not sure how we did that, but there it is. Part of my problem coming up with a concrete number on expenses is that we both keep cash out of our paycheck. I just found out that DH keeps WAY more than I do. This goes for work lunches, allowance for the kids, gas for our oldest son, picking up just a small thing or 2 at the store, etc. DH also has a knack for finding yard sales with small girl clothing, so most of my 3 yr olds clothes come from him. But since I hadn't been in the habit of keeping up with receipts and how I spent my money, and DH refuses to save his receipts for me and just gives me a general idea where it went, I have trouble categorizeing to make sure the amounts are what we actually spend.

[aa06a47]

ark....whatever you do, don't let them put that house in your name...it will mean so many headaches down the road for you, just my opinion. Put it in your kids name or have your mother set up a trust or something. You don't want this right now. The trustee could take it, sell it on the courthouse steps for penny's on the dollar to his/her golf buddy bubba, and you would not have the house, and still owe money to them. The trustee may not do this, but you just never know. Better safe than sorry.

ps...I'm not a laywer, but I am BK and have read what a trustee can do.

[aa06a47]

Also, there is no such thing as owning something in name only. If your on that deed, it is yours....even if your mother thinks it is hers. You and your sibblings can (once all the papers are signed) throw her ass on the street. I take it that your family is close enought that won't happen.

Now, I had to go around and around with my mother on her things. I demanded she take my name off her property so that in the event I got sued for something that no one could attach it. She had not thought of that, but called me back and told me her lawyer said that no one could attach anything to it as long as she was still alive. So, my mother had it set up a certain way, (which way, I don't know, but it did mean that my name wasn't on the property in a way it showed I owned it.)

Perhaps, that is what your mil is doing right now. Perhaps upon death or something, then it belongs to you. There are a billion ways for her to protect it, but so easy to "screw up".

[Minnymouth]

Absolutely make sure that the house transaction is done in the correct manner to protect it from seizure by the Trustee.......
Also remember if its in Trust for your Kids - it's theirs!! Not yours!

Also an ounce of prevention - If you are going to be taking care of this individual in the future, BE SURE you have the legal paperwork in order to help her handle her affairs.

If you do not have the proper paperwork in place Social Security - banks - or NO ONE will discuss her business with you.

Social Security DOES NOT RECOGNIZE a power of attorney paper!!

If you do not have the proper paperwork in order - DOORS WILL BE SLAMMED IN YOU FACE......................

BELIEVE ME I KNOW.............. went thru it with my mom until we got documents all signed.......

And this is in ANY STATE!!!

Minny

[arkienurse]

Minnie, thanks for the advice. One of DH's sisters has a power of attourney and is on MIL checking account. I am happy she has started listening to what we started telling her after FIL passed, 10 years ago. It is only in the last few months that she has done anything.

I finally had to call the lawyer myself, with my groggy, just had a tooth pulled mind. Am waiting on a call back now.