Trustee questions

[cool33097]

I live in Fl. We are planing to file soon but don't know exctly how soon. My lawyer told me today that trustee's comes to your house to check your stuff (furnitures, clothes, etc). Is this true?
He also said that for us to keep our furniture we might need to vacate our home. We are BK our home as well but I heard some people still stay and leave in their house sometimes over a year after bk. I don't know what to do. After we file, we will be debit free but will be very hard to live with the income and we would like to save as much as possible. Any advice??
Thanks

[lrprn]

99,9% of trustees do not come to your home unless they suspect you are hiding valuable assets.

If you haven't retained this lawyer, I highly recommend you interview 2-3 more. Call and make appointments for free or low-cost initial consultations - you'll be glad you did.

If you have already retained this lawyer, then given the information you've shared I'm concerned that he/she may not be as knowledgeable about bankruptcy as they should be to represent your interests well. I encourage you to reconsider your choice.

We can help you more if you share how much equity you have in your home. The Florida home exemptions are quite generous - http://filing-bankruptcy-form.com/fo...ns/Florida.pdf . Are you surrendering your home because you no longer can afford the payments?

[vernors]

We filed ch 7 in FL middle district - awaiting 341. Our lawyer said only once in all her cases did they come to a person's house. That was to specifically look at a piece of antique furniture valued at $3000+. I think you are pretty safe unless you have something like this (and have listed it on your property list).

[epiphany]

Could it be that you told your lawyer that you don't want to list your camera and lithos? If so, he may just be saying what he is saying to be cautious because from what you have said on this board, it does sound like you want to hide things.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but from your few posts, that's the way it looks, and that's the way it may look to your lawyer too.

If that is the case, you need to come to terms with the fact that you are going to have to make some material sacrifices now for that better life ahead.

If that is not the case, then you need to find a new lawyer..one you can trust and who will help you understand the reality of your BK.

EP

[cool33097]

I don't want to hide anything, I just want to know what I will be allowed to keep. My house is fully furnished and I would prefer if I don't have to give anything in the bk because I will not have money to buy again.

[Lindsay]

Your lawyer probably wants to prepare you for all possible scenarios. The trustee could come to your house, but that would be really rare. I haven't read a single post in the past year on the internet where that actually happened. I imagine that would only happen if the trustee suspected you were hiding valuable assets like antiques or art.

Why would you have to vacate your home to keep your furniture? That doesn't make much sense. If you haven't retained your lawyer yet, I'd definitely have a consultation with a few others.

[cool33097]

I did retained my lawyer. We interviwed about 5 and he was very casual and made us be very comfortable. The day we hired him,I broke down and cried in his office and he was very understandable. I also believe he wants to prepare us for the worst. The senior partner in his office is actually one of the trustee's in the area where I live.
About have to vacate the house, he said that is a gray area right now and my husband and I together can keep $10000 of our personal things together including jewl, furniture, dishes, etc...
He also said he has a case right now that the client wants to stay and they are having a little bit of a problem and he is going to see what the outcome is before we file ours. We have to wait a little bit anyways because we have to save money to rent a place, and we hired him in advance in case we get sue, our package is ready and ready to go.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Why would you have to vacate your home to keep your furniture? That doesn't make much sense.

Lindsay, I'm filing in FL but not with FL exemptions, because I just moved here in August. However, as I researched bk, I ended up being exceptionally grateful for that, because FL has really small personal property exemptions. If you are a homeowner in FL and you bk Ch7, you're golden because you can keep 100% of the equity in your house. The trade off for that was that until just a few months ago, there was only $1000 personal property exemption and $1000 motor vehicle exemption, and little else. However, if you have no homestead equity to try to exempt, there was a wildcard exemption that you could take, I think $5000, of unused homestead.

Those numbers have since been increased and are NOT current, but they're still not all that much better from what I understand. (I quit looking at Florida's exemption structure as soon as I realized -- with a huge sigh of relief -- that I would not be using FL exemptions, so I don't know exactly what the current figures are anymore, my apologies.) So, basically, what it comes down to is that if you have a lot of $$$ in personal property you'd like to save (including cash in the bank), and you reside in FL with a lot of equity in your house, be prepared to either move or surrender assets.

Does that make sense? Hope this helps.

[Cali]

Lindsay, I'm filing in FL but not with FL exemptions, because I just moved here in August. However, as I researched bk, I ended up being exceptionally grateful for that, because FL has really small personal property exemptions. If you are a homeowner in FL and you bk Ch7, you're golden because you can keep 100% of the equity in your house. The trade off for that was that until just a few months ago, there was only $1000 personal property exemption and $1000 motor vehicle exemption, and little else. However, if you have no homestead equity to try to exempt, there was a wildcard exemption that you could take, I think $5000, of unused homestead.

Those numbers have since been increased and are NOT current, but they're still not all that much better from what I understand. (I quit looking at Florida's exemption structure as soon as I realized -- with a huge sigh of relief -- that I would not be using FL exemptions, so I don't know exactly what the current figures are anymore, my apologies.) So, basically, what it comes down to is that if you have a lot of $$$ in personal property you'd like to save (including cash in the bank), and you reside in FL with a lot of equity in your house, be prepared to either move or surrender assets.

Does that make sense? Hope this helps.

Thank goodness I don't live in FL. The exemptions don't cover much at all.

[AMISLANDER]

The trustee never came to my house, but in this world and with the state of the bankruptcyfilings at an all time high, you never know who's watching who....just keep it as legal/real as you can, in my opinion.

[cool33097]

That really sucks. I don't have any equity in my house, is actually upside down, but I o have my furniture that took me 10 years to buy. I do have some assets (I think). I might have to move, I am looking already, but I heard insurance does not insure vacate homes and I am really confused. When I surrender my house in the bk, am I still responsible for, or will I be done? I am asking because people do that ans still live in their house.