Urgent Help needed. Just had 341 in NC

[djt]

The cases went with relative ease mostly lasting 1 or 2 minutes. My particular trustee was the hardest of all. I thought I has everything in good order as a pro se filer until he tells me that according to how my exemptions are listed he is entitled to take from me $3500. I misunderstood the wildcard exemption it appears. He told me that I should consult an attorney. My question is why? I have done everything up to this point and his only problem was expemtions which I think I understand now.

Anyway it appears that each debtor is entitled to $10000 as a real estate exemption. Now here is where the problem lies. The definition from form 7 say, "real or personal propertyused as a residence up to $10,000, up to $3500 of unused portion of homestead my be applied to any property". NC also has a separate exemption form that reads, "amount of the unused portion of the first $3500 may be carried forward to be applied on other property claimed as exempt".

On the NC exemptions schedule I divided all properties equally between my wife and me, giving us both a $5000 exemption on the $10000 in equity that we have in our home. I then gave us both a wildcard exemption of $3500. Does anyone have any insight about the NC wildcard? Am I to understand that it can only be claimed if you don't claim a homestead exemption. I only used it because I wasn't sure how to classify some of my personal property. Do cash on hand, tax refunds, money in savings, etc count as personal property under exemption 1601(a)(4)?

Thanks for any insight. The trustee said that we might not have to reappear before the court if we can get this worked out through a lawyer. I understand how important it is, but with things as tight as they are I would rather not spend that money if it is something that can be fixed rather simply.

[StaciMM]

Perhaps the WC can't be doubled for joint filers?

[djt]

We can always count on you, Staci, even when others are reluctant to post. I'm not sure where I got it from that all exemptions would double. I guess I'll have to make the investment and contact an attorney to be safe. GOD I hate to have to spend this money that I don't have. If I had the taxrefund in hand it would be a different story. No problem coughing up $500 or so to save $3000.

What about the definition of personal property? We were way under for the $4,300 exemption that we are both entitled to. I split everthing down the middle, and if I were to not even include the wildcard and exempt everything as personal property we still wouldn't be over $4000 each.

But is cash personal property?

[bkfiler]

"We can always count on you, Staci, even when others are reluctant to post."

people only reply when they know the answer or think they may know the answer. bk is a very serious federal case and its best not to guess or post something that someone is not almost confident about. most dont know the laws that you are asking so and thats why most people here got an attorney.

good luck

[StaciMM]

DJT-

I just looked up the exemptions from NC on quite a few sites, and I'll admit-they're confusing.

They say that unused homestead up to $3500 is a WC, then they also say that $3500 less any amount claimed for homestead is a WC. I'm inclined to think that:

If you use X of the $10,000 homestead, then $3500 less X is the remaining WC. So if you used $5000 exemption, then you have no WC. BUT in your case, you & spouse each have $10,000 exemption and the total equity is $10,000-Right? So, one of you uses the $10,000 exemption, the other uses none. The one who uses none gets the $3500 WC. If you had $12,000 in equity then one would use $10,000 and the other $2,000 leaving $1500 WC.

If I'm reading that correctly, you could only get the $7k WC if you didn't use any homestead exemption.

You can probably amend your exemptions if you didn't use all of the personal property allowance. From each site I checked, they stated $3500 plus $750 per dependant. None actually said double for joint filers, they all just said $3500 for 'the debtor'. Didn't address having 'debtors' at all. Anyhow, my logic is to use up all you can of the personal property exemptions, then apply the WC to what is left.

Regarding consulting w/ an attorney-this might be a bit sneaky, maybe even a little mean, BUT... Whose to say you have to tell them you already filed? You could make a consultation, and mainly ask about the exemption rules.

[bkfiler]

djt, i just thought of an idea. assuming you dont have an attorney of course, then do you have access to pacer? do a search for a given name or case with a recent date maybe and print out that petition. i bet after around less then 10 of them you will have your answers and that will be based on attorneys filing so they should be correct.

staci said: "Regarding consulting w/ an attorney-this might be a bit sneaky, maybe even a little mean, BUT... Whose to say you have to tell them you already filed? You could make a consultation, and mainly ask about the exemption rules." you are a bad girl! single? hehe

imo they love their work and would enjoy giving you advice. also, imo you had better give a different last name because they check to see if you filed already hehe. mine did on the sly when i went to talk to her.

[FoolAndHisMoney]

"We can always count on you, Staci, even when others are reluctant to post."

people only reply when they know the answer or think they may know the answer. bk is a very serious federal case and its best not to guess or post something that someone is not almost confident about. most dont know the laws that you are asking so and thats why most people here got an attorney.

good luck

How true this is! I try not to treat this forum like "Who wants to be a millionaire" where the audiance is asked and some cases they just guess wrong. I learned everything I know on this subject from the WEB and the library and some of your experiences, but would rather give no response then the wrong response. I wouldn't want some of you pro se r's to face a trustee based on my advice.

[djt]

Don't worry guys. I understand your hesitance. All I look for is shared experience. I just wanted to give a shout out to Staci as the hardest working woman on this forum. It's not a snub to the rest of you.

By the way, Staci... I just checked out the Cameron Law NC BK forum, and you are right. She explains what is doubled and what is not. No mention of the doubled wildcard. I just assumed that was the case because the local exemption form says that each debtor has $10,000. But the local form says first $3500 of the unused portion and everywhere else it says $3500 of the unused amount. That's a big difference. Now I understand. I will call the trustee's office tomorrow to see what I should do to amend and/or resubmit.

I know mine is a no asset case, and so did the trustee. Imagine my horror when he told me to cough up $3500. I almost crapped my pants.

[StaciMM]

I guess its a good sign that he suggested you get help, rather than trying to take stuff. (Kind of like playing a game with a child. You don't WANT to beat them-you want to give them every opportunity to learn but ultimately can't just let them win either-they need to earn it.)

In all honesty, I tend to look up info if I feel it might help someone. I've saved quite a few links, etc. in the past few months. While its not difficult to look up, I imagine it can be quite overwhelming and that makes it hard to sort the info. I recall when I nearly panicked when I found out I had to complete an affidavit for filing pro se. Couldn't find it anywhere until someone pointed out it was on the districts webpage.

[FLGirl]

If you go for an attorney, try Legalmatch.com . I filed pro se then realized I needed HELP amending and a kind lawyer responded with a VERY reasonable quote.