power bill ?

[LookingAhead]

We are several months behind on our power bill and there is a deposit on it from having it turned off over the summer (I mailed our payment a week in advance and they didn't get it in time...not happy!)
I didn't think to ask lawyer #1 about it, but lawyer #2 said we could include the bill in the bankruptcy as we are a couple months behind and also have the deposit of a few hundred dollars on there (I will just continue to pay what I can, but we don't have enough to get caught up on it yet). I forgot to ask lawyer #3 about it and then I asked laywer #4 today and he said no, use ta return to get it paid off (we really need that money to pay the lawyer and buy a new car (this has been approved by the last 3 lawyers and get caught up on morgtage and car payments).

So...point is...does anyone know if I can relaly include the past due amount and what's left of the deposit in our bk or not? Thanks!

[mtbc]

What reason was given for not including it? The only problem I can see is that they may ask for a new, large deposit to set up a new post-filing account for you so you may not save much overall.

[DeadManCrawling]

After we filed, our electric company demanded a thousand dollar deposit, within 3 days, or they would shut the power off.

We were moving anyway, so it made no difference to us. If you include them, this may happen to you as well. So if you need electric from them after filing, you probably want to pay them off somehow. Even then, though, I have heard of utilities demanding a deposit from people who are current on the bill but file bk.

Our auto insurance wanted 6 months payments in advance, also, right after we filed bk. Luckily we had the money.

Seems counterproductive to the idea of bk, that they demand huge deposits of people who are insolvent, when the payments are current, but it happens.

[JEM]

After we filed, our electric company demanded a thousand dollar deposit, within 3 days, or they would shut the power off.

We were moving anyway, so it made no difference to us. If you include them, this may happen to you as well. So if you need electric from them after filing, you probably want to pay them off somehow. Even then, though, I have heard of utilities demanding a deposit from people who are current on the bill but file bk.

Our auto insurance wanted 6 months payments in advance, also, right after we filed bk. Luckily we had the money.

Seems counterproductive to the idea of bk, that they demand huge deposits of people who are insolvent, when the payments are current, but it happens.

Who do you use for auto insurance?

[LookingAhead]

Wow, okay, thanks. If we go with the one that said we could do this I guess we have some more questions about it for him. He told us they could not turn our power off because of this. The larger deposit $ would suck though...

[LookingAhead]

anyone else deal with this? still trying to figure it out and figure out how to get th ebill paid off since we now have to spend all of our tax return on a new car and pay for the bk lawyer...

[Tweeby]

Ohio here. We had a LARGE electric bill that was past due. We have been on PIP for years which we had to pay only a portion of our winter bill but was still responsible for the arreages. We were even behind in our PIP payments when we filed. We expected to have to pay a deposit to keep our electric turned on.

Not sure if it was because of PIP but the electric company did not ask for a deposit. We had a prorated amount, the amount from the time we filed until the end of our billing peroid.

[ryan]

After we filed, our electric company demanded a thousand dollar deposit, within 3 days, or they would shut the power off.....

....Our auto insurance wanted 6 months payments in advance, also, right after we filed bk. Luckily we had the money.

Man, that is not good news! ...I'll admit I had not planned on that at all.
Just figured as long as I was current on those bills, I could just keep paying promptly after discharge. ...even worse if at FILING they made those demands.

I could see that being a big problem for many folks.

[AngelinaCat]

Here is what happened with us: We fell way behind in making our payments to the electric company. We always paid something as we could but never the entire amount on time. So they charged us a deposit of $790.00 to be paid in full right then or have the power turned off. This after having the account in good standing for more than 40 years. Oh well....

So we scraped it together and paid it. We also included our utility bills, and as per the instructions on the bk forms, we listed the $790.00 deposit.

That deposit was deemed an 'asset' by the trustee and we got to purchase it back as part of the package of our stuff we had to buy back from the BK estate.

This still does not make sense to me. Perhaps JustBroke can opine. He seems to understand more about how these things work than I do. The electric company is Florida Power and Light, if that matters.

Anyway, several months after our discharge in August of 2008, we got a credit of $1300.00 on our electric bill.

That is our experience......

[ecsclb1724]

we included our electric in our BK. They wiped the bill clean and set up a new account but required a $300 deposit.

They cannot shut off your power for 30 days under bankruptcy law once you've filed.

[LSUTiger32]

Wow, surprised to hear some of these stories. First of all, let me just mention that unless your income is ZERO keep the lights on! Buy some food and pay the water, gas and electric bills.

As far as the other part I don't know because we never fell behind. No issues whatsoever for us, we just kept paying. No contact from them, no additional deposits. Unless you have no choice I would try to get caught up with them especially like here if there are the only game in town.

[AngelinaCat]

Our auto insurance wanted 6 months payments in advance, also, right after we filed bk. Luckily we had the money.

I guess I will add here, since it is somewhat related, that if you are in the market for homeowner's insurance, be aware that some insurance companies will turn you down flat if you have a BK within the last five years....

[LookingAhead]

Thanks for the replies. We cannot completly pay the power bill right now because it's up to around $900 so would become an asset. I thought about trying to do a few larger payments once we got our tax return, but we have to buy a new car with that money and pay the lawer with it now. Can't catch a break!
I wouldn't mind getting the slate wiped clean and paying a $300 deposit! I think I am going to try and e-mail one of the other lawyers about it and see if they will respond (we are thinking about using him, going between 2 trying to decide who to retain on Friday - I'm getting stressed out!)

[DeadManCrawling]

In answer to a post I missed:

Our auto insurance is Geico.

Never been late, never had a ticket, had one minor parking lot fender bender ($700 payout) a few years ago.

After BK, our next bill required 6 months upfront.

Our power company is Withlacoochee River Electric Coop. (Yes, WREC)

[iv65536]

No issues here. I was, and still am, current on electric, gas, cell, internet, satellite, 1st mortgage, and HOA dues. As of filing, car insurance was paid up to the end of January. Still owed on my car, but have now paid that off and am awaiting the lien release notice from the bank. Will file that and the mailed discharge notice in the safe deposit box, with the mortgage docs, car title, and SS card.

Car insurance I have paid the full six months in one shot, by my choice, for the last ten years. Mine is through Progressive; they would have allowed me to pay monthly installments (even though I was in the 60-day period at that time), and only raised the 6-month premium by $1.