Vehicles - Transferring Assets - Trustee Investigation?

[TheDouble]

I have filed for Chap. 7 in Oregon.

I listed the fact that I sold two vehicles within the past 6 months - my attorney says this goes into my "income" for the past 6 months. One was "arms length" transaction and the other was to my son-in-law. The one sold to my son-in-law was for around $1000 less than market value to its poor condition.

I also have 5 other vehicles in various states of condition - i.e., some not running, etc.

My question is: Is the trustee going to delve into the sale of these vehicles and/or question the values I have listed for the 5 I still own? I calculated the values based on Blue Book info, Ebay selling prices and my own knowledge of their condition, etc and tried to be as "fair" as possible.

My attorney told me that sometimes the trustee will send someone out to evaluate the vehicles if he doesn't like what you listed?

I also noticed on the trustee questionaire that I am supposed to bring to the 341 asks if I have transferred any personal property within the last 48 months? How deep is he going to go into this?

Thanks in advance!

[SinkingFast]

We sold a truck in March before filing in Sept and the proceeds weren't counted as part of our income. We used the money to pay a HUGE income tax bill. Our attny listed the money as being spent for living expenses.

The Trustee asked, at our 341 what we did with the money. We said, "We paid our income taxes". The Trustee flipped to our filed income taxes, the Bill of Sale on the truck, and the copy of the Cashier's Check made out to the IRS, said "OK" and went right on.

We had 3 other older cars. The Trustee never batted an eyelash at the values our attny listed.

[TheDouble]

Thanks SF - did your vehicles value exceed your exemption? In my case if I want to keep them I would have to pay the trustee for them - with a $2100 exemption.

I should still come in under the median even with the additional income from the sale of the vehicles, but only just barely.

My 341 is later in the month and I am starting to get nervous!

[HHM]

With that many vehicles, I imagine the trustee will probably send someone out to take a look, I am not 100% sure, but I don't think there is any state that allows you to exempt that many vehicles, but if they are all fully encumbered, then it really does not matter. As for the sale, trustees will almost always scrutinize "insider" (i.e. family members) transactions. However, if the sales were reasonable, then you don't have anything to worry about, but odds are, the trustee will ask for documentation of the transaction, so be prepared.

[BKTango]

Depending on how thorough your trustee is the non-running vehicles may not be a huge issue, just a minor one. We valued all of our vehicles according to blue book and adjusting for repairs we knew were needed, and took into consideration if the vehicle was even running. We exempted 5 vehicles, and a travel trailer. Two of the vehicles (daily drivers) were given a fair market value, and the others (hubby's projects) we valued anywhere from $100-$300 a piece. Those by the way were junkyard prices for the non running vehicles. If that's all you would get from the junkyard hauling them off...then that's what they are priced at. Our trustee never said a word. Maybe you could check into using the junkyard prices for those non running vehicles.

[JollyGG]

Our lawyer listed our '83 S-10 truck with a value of $100. This surprised me at the time because I feel the truck is worth closer to $500 - $700. Well, we listened to a few 341's before ours and there were plenty of vehicles listed for $100. That must be something that is a local standard for older vehicles in my district.
Can you check PACER to see what type of values older vehicles (projects) are common in your area?