Filing Bankruptcy im extremley poor with no assets, Can I just put this down and have no problems?
Question:
Vehicle $700 ( 1999 Mitsubishi Galant 124k miles, own it)
Miscellaneous Clothing $200
Miscellaneous Household Goods $800
401k $50 ( Yes $50 I invested for one week and stopped because.well im broke)
Do I have to list my bank account as an asset? I only have $125 in there right now and is there anything suggested I should include?
Thank You
Answer:
I'm a paralegal who worked bankruptcy law. First of all, go to a legal aid society and if you qualify under the financial guigelines, an attorney will be given to you free of charge.
In answering your question, all assets must be filled out on the petition or form you fill out to give to the bankruptcy court, your attorney will help you with this. You have to list everything you own, not just what you think should be listed, for example, you get to keep a wedding band, but let's say you have a wedding ring with a diamond in it, the bankruptcy trustee will sell it and take the proceeds from the sale and pay your creditors. You will be able to keep your a car (but if it was a porsche, your gonna sell it but in your description, you will get to keep your car. You will be able to keep clothes, as long as they are not designer clothes. As far as household goods, you will be able to keep them as long as you are current in payments on them. But one thing to beware of, all creditors can show up at a meeting to determine if they want you to sell certain items, creditors will have what is called a creditors meeting. Most creditors do not show up for this meeting unless you have items which are worth a lot of money. My final advice to you is, consult with an attorney as far as what can be kept. There are a lot of things you can and a lot of things you can't keep, way to much to list here. There are about 20 law books on bankruptcy guidelines alone. Also, get in touch with a legal society in your local area. If you do not know, you can call the American Bar Association (ABA) or another attorney to find out the phone number for legal aid.
An attorney costs over $300 to file. What can your creditors do to you other than pester you? You have no attachable assets.
Im no attorney, but i have been there done that.
First, you didnt say anything about how much or what you owe on.
Myself-i got in a mess with credit cards. I didnt have any real savings account or anything like that at the time. I filed chapter 13. It allowed me to keep what i owned...my car and everything without it getting repoed. Only catch is you have to pay back a certain amount of what you owe. They set up a payment plan for you, generally your money is deducted from your check at work. I had to pay back around 70% of what i owed over a 3 year period.
It was a *****.it was hard rebuilding my credit afterwards but it was worth it and a better option than going with chapter 7 where you lose everything.
Im pretty certain you have to list your bank account regardless of whats in it. Any asset you have you must list.
I filed over 10 years ago-so its not too fresh in my memory now. Kind of like a bad dream.
Get your life back on track, and get through this mess. When you do start all over fresh always remember how bad you feel now to try to keep it from happening again.
Good luck.
The guy before was dumb. You're life will not be normal or pleasant until you either pay off your debt or get it canceled by bankruptcy. I think you do have to list your bank accounts, and regardless you will probably need to pay an attorney because of the amount of paperwork. If there is any possibility of being able to pay your debt, you should do so instead of declaring bankruptcy. If you contact your creditors and tell them how bad the situation is, they will work with you.
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