Filed Chapter 7 Yesterday

[nikcool]

On Friday, we filed the homestead deed, and yesterday we filed the papers. We were granted a filing fee waiver an our trustee meeting is at the end of the month!

Two questions:

1) We plan to reaffirm the car (we HAVE to have a car. There is no public transportation where we live, we have no bikes and we live in a very tiny town.) Do I need to contact the lender before the 341 meeting?

2) I goofed, and didn't realize it until I looked at the papers in PACER. We were garnished. I used the homestead deed to exempt the amount of the garnishment, then I exempted it on the schedule. I didn't realize that we have another garnishment... I added it to the paperwork, but didn't exempt it because I didn't add it to the homestead deed. The garnishments are from the same place, and the second one was ongoing until we filed.

What do I do? I don't think I can exempt it because I didn't do it under the homestead deed? I think my husband has enough left on it for us to file another, but we don't really have the money to file it again. Will my case be dismissed because of this?

[justbroke]

1) We plan to reaffirm the car (we HAVE to have a car. There is no public transportation where we live, we have no bikes and we live in a very tiny town.) Do I need to contact the lender before the 341 meeting?

Since you filed Pro Se, you should already have contacted the lender's attorney, if you know who they are. You need to actually take action on your intention within 45 days of filing. If you wait until the 341 meeting, as many as 30-45 day may already have elapsed!

Additionally, have you looked at the economics of doing a Redemption instead (11 USC 722)? I was able to trim thousands from my auto loan (close to $10K if I'm remember correctly) at the time. However, a 722 Redemption loan could mean a really high interest rate and that may make redemption a bad financial decision.

2) I goofed, and didn't realize it until I looked at the papers in PACER. We were garnished. I used the homestead deed to exempt the amount of the garnishment, then I exempted it on the schedule. I didn't realize that we have another garnishment... I added it to the paperwork, but didn't exempt it because I didn't add it to the homestead deed. The garnishments are from the same place, and the second one was ongoing until we filed.

What do I do? I don't think I can exempt it because I didn't do it under the homestead deed? I think my husband has enough left on it for us to file another, but we don't really have the money to file it again. Will my case be dismissed because of this?

I don't understand what you're really trying to say. In any case, I do not personally give exemption advice since this is a sensitive area and you could lose property (or money) if you do it wrong. If you need to update your bankruptcy schedules (Schedule C: Exempt Property), then you would just file the update with the fee for making changes. Of course, you would need to follow the local guidelines and may need to update the "statistical" schedules as well.

Your case won't be dismissed for this reason. At worse, the Trustee decides to claw back the garnishment, make your case an asset case, and distribute the proceeds between his/her commission and the unsecured creditors filing an allowed claim.

[nikcool]

Since you filed Pro Se, you should already have contacted the lender's attorney, if you know who they are. You need to actually take action on your intention within 45 days of filing. If you wait until the 341 meeting, as many as 30-45 day may already have elapsed!

Additionally, have you looked at the economics of doing a Redemption instead (11 USC 722)? I was able to trim thousands from my auto loan (close to $10K if I'm remember correctly) at the time. However, a 722 Redemption loan could mean a really high interest rate and that may make redemption a bad financial decision.

I don't understand what you're really trying to say. In any case, I do not personally give exemption advice since this is a sensitive area and you could lose property (or money) if you do it wrong. If you need to update your bankruptcy schedules (Schedule C: Exempt Property), then you would just file the update with the fee for making changes. Of course, you would need to follow the local guidelines and may need to update the "statistical" schedules as well.

Your case won't be dismissed for this reason. At worse, the Trustee decides to claw back the garnishment, make your case an asset case, and distribute the proceeds between his/her commission and the unsecured creditors filing an allowed claim.

We'll contact the lender about the reaffirmation tomorrow. Our conversation today was just to report that we filed. I'll also look into a redemption loan... our interest rate is already terrible so that might be a better option.

Basically, I exempted one garnishment, but didn't exempt the other. (both are listed, though). Thank you for all the information that you gave me.

[nikcool]

we had a 341 meeting, where we learned that the trustee didn't get our bank statements/paystubs. So that's been continued. DH has to take another day off of work, and I think he's out of leave... So I'm going to call the trustees office and make sure they get our paperwork this time! I also have to call them because DH is apparently getting garnishment checks back, and I'm not sure what to do with them, since some of them are before our filing date.

(I avoided the forums for a while because I didn't make sure the trustee had the paperwork.)

[justbroke]

If you are pro se, then how did you send the documents to the Trustee? I sent mine by both e-mail and by overnight mail with signature required. It's shocking how many times are "lost". I tend to use traceable ways to mail important things. I don't like it when someone says that they never received something that I have proof of delivery for.

[nikcool]

email, and regular mail. The regular mail came back to us, because I just dropped it in the mailbox with a couple of stamps.

Good news! The trustee's office told us that we didn't have to come in to continue our 341 meeting, and I just checked PACER, where the Notice of no distribution has been filed already!

[justbroke]

Very well done!