Does somebody come to your house?

[abe1001]

A friend of mine declared bankruptcy about 10 years ago. He told me how awful it was and that he had somebody come to his house to inspect his belongings. Is there really an inspection of your house? And, how bad is it? Do I and my wife get grilled by a trustee? I have nothing to hide. The assets that I have are exempt, 401Ks... retirement. I have 10K in a trust for my kids education that may or may not be exempts, but that is small change compared to the situation I am in.

[keepmine]

You and your wife must appear before a trustee at the 341 meeting but, 99% of the time you're done in 5 minutes or so.
Nobody will come to your home unless, the trustee suspects you've undervalued assets.

[abe1001]

Assets? Ha! I am a lousy investor, so that is one 'problem' that is taken care of. And, I don't really have a lot of stuff that is worth much. I have a hot tub that I tried to sell, and then give away, but no takers. (Free hot tub, but you need about $1000 of electrical work to install it to your house.) No Jewlery to speak of. But, I do have some nice ties that I got for presents. I don't like stuff.

[gophermn]

Nobody came here! I do know if you are behind on mortgage payments the mortager might have a realtor drive by making sure the property is not vacant. But 99.9% of the time they just drive by.

[Anna.M]

I actually asked my attorney about this yesterday- being as I don't have any assetts (nothing the trustee would be interested in at least). He said they'll only come to your home if you have assetts they suspect you've undervalued that he/she'd be interested in. I'm pretty sure they'd forewarn you though.

[HHM]

It is RARE for the trustee to come to your house (or send someone)...and even if they did, they would schedule an appointment to do so.

The only time I have seen it happen is if the debtor closed a business and moved many of the business assets to their home.

[Cassiopeia]

Nobody came to my house and never heard it happen to anyone. If they DID decide to pay me a visit they'd probably discharge me on the spot just for feeling sorry for me. LOL! Through years of financial hardship (SHOULD have filed BK much sooner), my house was pretty much in shambles...., very neglected.

[justplaintired]

well my DH family (6 families) filed BK at one point or another and not one had anyone come to there homes, 2 of my best friends and my ex also filed and none ever had anyone come to there homes. Matter of fact I never really thought about it but I know quite a few people who have filed. Amazing!?!?! Too bad we don't want to talk about this with any of them, afraid in this small town soon everyone would know.

They all filed under the old law. Not sure if that matters. Seems to me unless the suspect your hiding something or think you're lying they wouldn't bother but now I am just guessing and have read other threads concerning this same question and they all said no one comes to your house.

[One Half Full]

I still don't understand what is meant by over-value/under value. I was told to go by what I could sell it at a garage sale for. Since I bought most items at garage sales and places like the salvation army, I just used the prices I paid for them--

[keepmine]

I still don't understand what is meant by over-value/under value. I was told to go by what I could sell it at a garage sale for. Since I bought most items at garage sales and places like the salvation army, I just used the prices I paid for them--

One example would be, say you live in a $500K house and list personal property worth $1K. At that point, a trustee may want to have a look.
Or, you claim your auto is worth far less than book value.
Again, it doesn't happen often and really not worth worrying about.

[justplaintired]

I still don't understand what is meant by over-value/under value. I was told to go by what I could sell it at a garage sale for. Since I bought most items at garage sales and places like the salvation army, I just used the prices I paid for them--

We had the same problem when we were figuring things. We buy everything like that. So I basically put down what I would have paid for at a garage sale, cause I spend my entire summer going to garage sales, so I know prices well. If the trustee asked me anything I will tell her the truth, most of my stuff came from garage sales so prices it was simple, I just priced it for what I paid for it! That's one good thing about being called the garage sale queen around here, I know my garage sale prices!! LOL