Florida Trustees

[UnderH2OMom]

We are in the Florida Middle District and had our 341 about 5 months ago at the Tampa courthouse. We own a business and a home, but were surrendering the house as it is upside down by at least 100K. We filed chapter 7, no assets. At our 341, we arrived 2 hours early and watched 20 cases before us. Not once was an appraisal ordered. That was my biggest fear...I didn't want a stranger rummaging through our stuff. Maybe we just lucked out with a super nice trustee.

[tobee43]

We are in the Florida Middle District and had our 341 about 5 months ago at the Tampa courthouse. We own a business and a home, but were surrendering the house as it is upside down by at least 100K. We filed chapter 7, no assets. At our 341, we arrived 2 hours early and watched 20 cases before us. Not once was an appraisal ordered. That was my biggest fear...I didn't want a stranger rummaging through our stuff. Maybe we just lucked out with a super nice trustee.

once again, i think that's rather interesting in the respect you were not retaining your home, but surrendering it.

so far, just at a glance it appears that most of those getting the appraisers assigned do, in fact, still have a home...since of course makes sense since one must suppose that the trustee is looking for "hidden" assets....while if you don't have a home or surrendering it, what do you have left? i know it's rather rhetorical, however, none the scary.

[angles]

I don’t know how you FL guys do it, BK is already stressful enough and to allow someone into your home to see what he wants to take from you is way over the top to me.

[tobee43]

I don’t know how you FL guys do it, BK is already stressful enough and to allow someone into your home to see what he wants to take from you is way over the top to me.

it THAT scary or WHAT? thankfully we didn't ...i think i couldn't live through it!

[dokis2112]

scary and stressful at a time when you are at your lowest. kinda like kicking you when your down. ironicly in my case so far the appraisal was the least intrusive part...

[tobee43]

what IS it about florida??? i haven't heard of many other states having this MANY audits....so i really wonder what it is about florida itself that they have more compelled to order the audits???

kicking one while they are down is an understating....these terrible people!! i KNOW they are doing their jobs....but really, most of the time it seems as though they are squeezing that last bit of blood from that stone!

[dokis2112]

per my lawyer : the trustee in our district is a lawyer. if they think you have anything... boom you are now an asset case. and then the trustee hires their law firm to invetigate your case and charges the bk court at the firms hrly rate. and do a long drawn out investigation to look for assets. appraisals, audits, and any other thing that can be considered billable hrs. good incentive to flag as many cases as possible

[tobee43]

per my lawyer : the trustee in our district is a lawyer. if they think you have anything... boom you are now an asset case. and then the trustee hires their law firm to invetigate your case and charges the bk court at the firms hrly rate. and do a long drawn out investigation to look for assets. appraisals, audits, and any other thing that can be considered billable hrs. good incentive to flag as many cases as possible

what an absolute scam isn't it??? disgraceful really.

[pathfinders]

We were Middle district FL. Tampa, Chapter 7 No assets, Surrendered the house, In and out in 5 minutes and no Appraisal ordered.


we seen about 10 cases, as far as I heard no appraisals were ordered , and no one had a house that they were not surrendering,

Please note there about 20 trusties in the Middle district, I had heard there was one in particular that is the tough one before going to our 341. Ours was nice and seemed to care. It seems to be the luck of the draw on what trustee you get.....

[tobee43]

We were Middle district FL. Tampa, Chapter 7 No assets, Surrendered the house, In and out in 5 minutes and no Appraisal ordered.


we seen about 10 cases, as far as I heard no appraisals were ordered , and no one had a house that they were not surrendering,

Please note there about 20 trusties in the Middle district, I had heard there was one in particular that is the tough one before going to our 341. Ours was nice and seemed to care. It seems to be the luck of the draw on what trustee you get.....

the same here...i actually think the day we went either there was no property involved or the property was surrendered. we were called first....but we were still there for the next person and it was the same...in and out in a few minutes.

but, we were asked a FEW questions...nothing complicated because most everything was already asked and answered between the trustee's office my atty and us, prior to the 341.

[DeadManCrawling]

The answer for WHY this happens is really quite simple.

The personal property exemption in FL is ridiculously small. It is nearly impossible to be under that limit, if you are keeping your home or business.

The trustee does not really WANT your stuff. What they DO want is to nail you with a number that exceeds your exemption and then force you to buy back your stuff. It happens a lot.

At our 341, appraisals were ordered in about 70% or more of cases, if I recall right. We were not subject to one, but we surrendered a valuable sports car and were surrendering our home. We DID keep a performing business that is still our main source of income and we were not questioned or appraised on that. However, it is a service oriented business that would generate no money without us and is otherwise worthless.

Since we were surrendering the home, we were allowed the higher personal exemption which I think is around 7k. That is enough to cover most normal household value.

There have been cases where the trustee takes personal items, even old furniture, but their usual course is to negotiate a buy-back. Extortion, in other words. Failing that, they oftentimes abandon the property back to the BK filer when it becomes apparent they can shakedown more money from the filer.

A truly barbaric system.

[homes]

We were an asset case in the Tampa courts and had an appraiser come out to our home and visit every room. It was very stressful for our kids

[Freddy03]

The answer for WHY this happens is really quite simple.

The personal property exemption in FL is ridiculously small. It is nearly impossible to be under that limit, if you are keeping your home or business.

The trustee does not really WANT your stuff. What they DO want is to nail you with a number that exceeds your exemption and then force you to buy back your stuff. It happens a lot.

At our 341, appraisals were ordered in about 70% or more of cases, if I recall right. We were not subject to one, but we surrendered a valuable sports car and were surrendering our home. We DID keep a performing business that is still our main source of income and we were not questioned or appraised on that. However, it is a service oriented business that would generate no money without us and is otherwise worthless.

Since we were surrendering the home, we were allowed the higher personal exemption which I think is around 7k. That is enough to cover most normal household value.

There have been cases where the trustee takes personal items, even old furniture, but their usual course is to negotiate a buy-back. Extortion, in other words. Failing that, they oftentimes abandon the property back to the BK filer when it becomes apparent they can shakedown more money from the filer.

A truly barbaric system.

I completely agree!

Thanks!

[dokis2112]

extortion...thats the word i have been looking for . i guess if you are the barbarians at the gate, holding the key to so many peoples fresh start, you can do what you want . very sad

[tobee43]

I completely agree!

Thanks!

DITTO!!!!! well stated!!! but i still have to wonderful why florida appears to this above many other states.

when we decided to use florida as opposed to nj...it was because florida was BETTER than nj...yet, i hear this rarely happening in nj? interesting.....