• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

question for someone else...

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

nailtech

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Texas

Asking for someone else,

Can a person who is filing chapter 7 and not yet had a 341 meeting or discharge have a garage sale and sell off assets???

But they have done the paper work and the creditors have been notified...
I dont think they can but;
Is this a reason for dismissal or fraud???

if so, how does one go about stopping the discharge or claiming fraud?? (if it is)...
 


bigun

Senior Member
Boy, I just would dispose of nothing until I had the discharge.
I guess it all depends on what they're selling. If it's just typical garage sale stuff like clothes and old furniture I doubt any harm is done. The creditors have 60 days after the the 341 meeting to raise any sort of claims of fraud or abuse with the trustee.
 
C

cyana

Guest
IMHO (NOT legal advice)

If your friend(s) lives in TX as you do, I'm sure you realize that TX has very generous personal property exemptions. I would think much of their personal property would easily fall under the exemptions making it OK (I THINK) to have a garage sale. I'm sure your friend(s) had to list their checking/savings acct balances when they filed - the balances trustees are most interested in; as long as the rest of their schedules were filed out properly (generous exemption for personal property included), your friend should be fine.

Again, just my opinion. Perhaps a discreet call to a bk attorney would be in order, or maybe Dorene or another one of the board's senior members will chime in later. I can't see anybody claiming fraud unless your friend was trying to unload antique cars (just kidding) or other things of significant value at a "yard sale", such that a hypothetical person making a fraud claim could say that your friend was unloading very valuable merchandise/assets not at "yard sale prices" but virtually giving things away with a clear "intent to defraud".
 

nailtech

Senior Member
actually my daughter is one of their creditors,.... she was driving down the road and discovered they the debtors were having a garage sale... like I told my daughter everything that they own belongs to the trustee at this point and they should not be selling anything.. she couldn't see everything that they were selling but she did see things like baby strollers and such.. just wanted to know if they were doing something they were not suppose to be doing at this stage of their BK...

my daughter received a judgement against her for baby sitting fees(200.00), when my daughter wanted to be paid over a year ago for this she told her she would file BK she's just now getting around to the BK... I was wondering if the garage sale was considered fraud??
 
C

cyana

Guest
I AM sorry for your daughter, Nailtech

I assume she's listed as as a creditor on this person's BK creditor matrix. With TX having such a generous personal property exemption your daughter may be out of luck. If she's not listed, I think her judgment could still be enforcible. But chances are she/her judgment is listed. If you don't if she is listed as a creditor I can help you find out. Again...I'm sorry.

As bigun commented - not to chance selling anything MAJOR until after this person has discharge in hand - I am just beginning to sell little things myself. But I live in a state(DE) with a very low ($5K + $500 wildcard) personal property exemption and NO homestead exemption. Much of my p/p exemption was consumed by my checking and savings acct amounts, a few pieces of jewelry, our clothes and our average age 10 year old furniture. So I was afraid/paranoid (that "somebody", my ex for example, would cry *fraud*) to sell anything. I had to sell my piano and a very nice treadmill at "garage sale prices" just to come with the money to pay my bk attorney, because I was more than dead broke from paying my divorce bills.
 
C

cyana

Guest
Further response

I did not mean to imply that you were asking for a "friend", meaning the person filing for bk. Maybe your daughter can drive down their street and "glare" at this person (definitely LOL) and "guilt" them into paying her. Again, just being facetious. I am NOT recommending that your daughter attempt to collect her debt when the "automatic stay" goes into efffect. ;)
 

nailtech

Senior Member
no she's not attempting to collect, she was included, she worked for a new attorney at the time, so the attorney helped her receive her judgement, and attorney fee's were included into the judgement as well... the trustee's letter to creditors came into the attorneys name, c/o my daughter...

my daughter suggested she would write a letter to the trustee, but wasn't sure if it would do anything I dont think she's planning on showing up at the 341 meeting now.. she was telling me last night she's just going to blow it off and chalk it up as a lesson learned
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top