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A reaffirmation agreement simply means that you have agreed with your creditor to continue to be liable to them after bankruptcy. You should almost never enter into a reaffirmation agreement with an unsecured creditor. This is because your debt to them will be discharged in Chapter 7, meaning they can never come after you again […]
When filing a Chapter 7 and 13 you must:
1. Reside, be domiciled, or have property or a place of business in the United States (U.S.). A person does not have to be a U.S. citizen to file, nor live in the U.S., if they have assets in the U.S.
2. You can file if you do not have a prior Chapter 7 discharge or it has been more than 8 years, or 6 years since a Chapter 13 discharge.
Anywhere from three weeks to fifty days after you file your Chapter 13 bankruptcy paperwork, a meeting of creditors will be held. Seven days before the meeting you will be required to give the trustee copies of your federal income tax return for the previous tax year. If you were not required to file taxes, you will provide a statement saying so.
In my last article I went over for you the basics of bankruptcy and briefly described the two most common types of bankruptcy used by individuals. Now I am going to spend some time focusing on the number one most common type of bankruptcy; the Chapter 7, which is sometimes referred to as the Straight […]
Reaffirming a Debt in Bankruptcy
There are times when clients who have filed chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy will ask whether or not they should reaffirm a debt that would otherwise be discharged in their bankruptcy. Reaffirmation is an agreement made with a creditor to continue paying off a debt even after bankruptcy. There may be legitimate reasons for wanting to reaffirm a debt or loan. However, before the changes in bankruptcy law in 2005, it was not uncommon for creditors to use coercive methods to try and get debtors to reaffirm a loan. Reaffirming a debt means that you will be legally responsible for repaying the debt after your bankruptcy even though the bankruptcy would have released you of any legal responsibility to pay it back.
When you hear “meeting of creditors,” you might imagine yourself having to face a room of people representing the banks and credit card companies. The reality is that the meeting of creditors is used by the trustee to ask you questions about your financial situation. These questions and your answers will help him or her carry out the responsibilities of the trustee. Creditors will rarely show up at this meeting. Bankruptcy judges are not allowed to attend the meeting of creditors.
In the last article I touched briefly on whether or not you could continue to make payments on property used as collateral without having to reaffirm the debt with the lender. To understand your options with regard to personal property used as collateral, I will be using the example of a car loan.
The ultimate goal of your chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy is receiving a discharge from the court. In a chapter 7 bankruptcy this occurs after your paperwork is filed, the meeting of creditors is held, the time period has passed for any creditors to object to a discharge, and you have completed your required financial education course.
When you have successfully completed your chapter 13 plan, you receive what is referred to as a discharge. When you receive a discharge, it means that all of the debt you included in your chapter 13 filing has been legally paid. After the discharge, creditors who were part of the process are not allowed to […]