Can I sell my furniture that isn't paid for?

[irapdp]

I know this is crazy, but I really need to sell our furniture, but is not paid for.

Long story short- Moved from out of State. It was too much to move everything, so we sold all our furniture there & bought new for our new house here. At the time we were financially sound and it shouldn't have been a prob.

We started a business that failed & the economy has ruined my income.

So, we have to downsize seriously. Our house is in escrow in a short sale and now we are going to move to a rental 1/2 the size. Virtually all our furniture is not paid for & it is too big and I don't have the room in the new space.

No we have not paid anything on it. We had 3 years to pay and had no idea our life was going to fall apart.

I can't declare bankruptcy till after the short sale is final. As soon as the short sale is final then I have to move.
#1 I need furniture that will fit. #2 I don't want to pay to move and for storage for the furniture that is not mine and I can't use anymore.

Can I sell it? Do I buy furniture to fit this small house or will I get in trouble for buying something? And when I say buying something, I mean like Craig's list and eBay used furniture not buying new.
Help what should I do?

[TEW]

have you filed or are you planning to file?

[irapdp]

We will file.
We are in escrow for a short sale on our house. If we file it freezes the house & our lender will drop the short sale.
The bk is bad enough, we want to avoid a Forclosure too.
I believe we will be a Ch7

[JRScott]

In truth you shouldn't sell it.

The company could require you to turn it over to them as it is considered secured debt. They don't always come after furniture as used furniture has a low resell value but they could and if you couldn't produce it they could claim fraud....

[irapdp]

So, if I have to move it and store it & I am going to surrender it, can I buy anything? I just worry about buying anything even used furniture. But we have tax money comingm to us if I don't use it they will take it. If they take my tax money & I have no furniture because they take that too. I will be sleeping and sitting on the floor.

[StartingOver08]

You can buy furniture with your tax money prior to filing. You are paying cash and like you said it will be CraigsList - check freecycle.org too, you would be pleasantly surprised at what is given away!

Assuming you purchased the furniture thru one of those dept store delayed payment plans (like Rooms To Go), technically there is a purchase money sec interest (PMSI) in the furniture you currently have that has not been paid for yet. Many of these types of stores send a letter to your attorney asking for the furniture back because of this security interest. Usually the store does NOT want the furniture back, they just want to 'force' you into a reaffirmation agreement. The prevailing sentiment here is to call their bluff, do not sign any sort of reaffirmation and have the store pick up the furniture. Tough to do if you do not have the furniture. BTW, the likelyhood of them actually coming to get it apparently is small.