New here. Hi everyone.
My wife and I are disabled. I received SSD a couple of months ago. She has not yet gotten hers, but there is little doubt that it will be awarded. Both were appealed.
Circumstance put us out of our home last year at about this time. We stayed with family until I could manage to get out of there and into a rented home.
Now I am considering, and have spoken with an attorney about, filing bankruptcy. My debts are about 75K, 25 of it being student loans I took out for my son's education while I was still working. They, of course, cannot be discharged. My savings, retirement, and all tangible assets were lost trying to keep up with medical premiums that were $800+ per month along with deductibles, copays, and living expenses.
Understand please that my wife has had multiple stokes, suffers from COPD, and has extreme vascular swings between alarmingly high and alarming low blood pressure that sometimes cause her to become incoherent and unable to function. The lower lobe of her right lung was removed because it had become infected with a grapefruit sized abcess. She was hospitalized at that time for more than three months. It then required a rib resection with a drainage tube while she treated with powerful antibiotics. That was in early 2003. She has not been right since and her condition cannot be expected to improve. Subsequent to that she has been hospitalized a few dozens (no joke) of times and we had medical bills in excess of 750K. I have had two heart attacks and serious muskuloskeletal injuries that leave me in constant pain. We were awarded medicaid benefits to retroactively cover most of those medical bills but are still left with the shit end of the stick. I did max out my credit card to try to hold things together, but have not been able to return to gainful employment. I used that borrowed money to keep up with things including the minimum credit card payments. Silly me.
Any collection letters or phone calls I receive are answered via email, fax, or postal service with instructions not to contact us at any time regarding those or any other debts. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act creditors are estopped from further collection action short of filing a court claim.
My SS lump sum payment was $25,000. We can reasonably expect my wife's to be in the low five figures.
We need housing. My question here is whether I can purchase real estate as our only dwelling with the lump sum awards. If I am credit worthy enough to swing a home purchase (our once perfect credit is long gone now, but I think that kind of money might help to get us into a home) do I run the risk of losing the home if I file bankruptcy shortly after the purchase? I am aware that homes are not fair game in bankruptcy proceedings under ordinary rules, but am concerned that a home purchase at this time and under these circumstances might be out of the ordinary.
I apologize that I went on about our medical issues. It has been tough and I think they are pertinent to these considerations. And can I please have some thoughts regarding the degree to which a trustee would or must consider those medical issues to discharge any or all of the debt with the exception of the student loans? I do know that there is quite a bit of latitude rendered to trustees in making those determinations, but do some findings of fact compel them to decide arbitrarily in a claimant's favor?
My wife and I are disabled. I received SSD a couple of months ago. She has not yet gotten hers, but there is little doubt that it will be awarded. Both were appealed.
Circumstance put us out of our home last year at about this time. We stayed with family until I could manage to get out of there and into a rented home.
Now I am considering, and have spoken with an attorney about, filing bankruptcy. My debts are about 75K, 25 of it being student loans I took out for my son's education while I was still working. They, of course, cannot be discharged. My savings, retirement, and all tangible assets were lost trying to keep up with medical premiums that were $800+ per month along with deductibles, copays, and living expenses.
Understand please that my wife has had multiple stokes, suffers from COPD, and has extreme vascular swings between alarmingly high and alarming low blood pressure that sometimes cause her to become incoherent and unable to function. The lower lobe of her right lung was removed because it had become infected with a grapefruit sized abcess. She was hospitalized at that time for more than three months. It then required a rib resection with a drainage tube while she treated with powerful antibiotics. That was in early 2003. She has not been right since and her condition cannot be expected to improve. Subsequent to that she has been hospitalized a few dozens (no joke) of times and we had medical bills in excess of 750K. I have had two heart attacks and serious muskuloskeletal injuries that leave me in constant pain. We were awarded medicaid benefits to retroactively cover most of those medical bills but are still left with the shit end of the stick. I did max out my credit card to try to hold things together, but have not been able to return to gainful employment. I used that borrowed money to keep up with things including the minimum credit card payments. Silly me.
Any collection letters or phone calls I receive are answered via email, fax, or postal service with instructions not to contact us at any time regarding those or any other debts. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act creditors are estopped from further collection action short of filing a court claim.
My SS lump sum payment was $25,000. We can reasonably expect my wife's to be in the low five figures.
We need housing. My question here is whether I can purchase real estate as our only dwelling with the lump sum awards. If I am credit worthy enough to swing a home purchase (our once perfect credit is long gone now, but I think that kind of money might help to get us into a home) do I run the risk of losing the home if I file bankruptcy shortly after the purchase? I am aware that homes are not fair game in bankruptcy proceedings under ordinary rules, but am concerned that a home purchase at this time and under these circumstances might be out of the ordinary.
I apologize that I went on about our medical issues. It has been tough and I think they are pertinent to these considerations. And can I please have some thoughts regarding the degree to which a trustee would or must consider those medical issues to discharge any or all of the debt with the exception of the student loans? I do know that there is quite a bit of latitude rendered to trustees in making those determinations, but do some findings of fact compel them to decide arbitrarily in a claimant's favor?
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