It’s great that you’re about to get more income from your job and if you’re in Chapter 7, that’s not a problem at all.  The money you earn after you file the bankruptcy is yours to keep.  But, if you’re in Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 it doesn’t work that way. 



Your post-bankruptcy earnings become part of the bankruptcy estate and that’s going to determine how much you’re going to have to pay to your creditors before you get your discharge and get clear from your debt.  So, it all depends on whether you’re in Chapter 7 or the reorganization chapters which are 13 and 11.

The post Will I Have A Problem If I Get A Raise During My Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Depending upon where you are in the process of evicting your tenant, you may have greater or lesser rights.  If you have a judgment for possession and then your tenant files bankruptcy before the eviction, then you have lots of rights, and for the most part, that tenant doesn’t even get the automatic stay in place, so you should be able to just go out, contact the sheriff, and evict the tenant, unless the tenant posts a 30-day payment of the rent into court when they file the bankruptcy.  Then, they’re going to have those 30 days to show that they’re going to be able to bring the rent current.



They can do that, but only if you have a judgment for possession.  If you don’t have a judgment for possession and your tenant files a Chapter 13 or a Chapter 11, your tenant is going to be able to cure the arrears on the rent over some period of time, probably not longer than 6 months after a plan is confirmed, and they’re going to have to keep the rent current on a going forward basis.



So, it depends on where you are in the process, but you do have rights, usually greater rights than most other creditors have.  Of course, if it’s a Chapter 7, then you can evict the tenant if they can’t cure, but they will discharge all the arrears.

The post What Can I Do When My Tenant Files Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.



We are strong proponents in our office of pre-confirmation and post-confirmation wage orders, because if you don’t have the temptation to skip a payment and you don’t have to have that extra discipline to make that one extra monthly bill and go through the pain of that, then you’re going to have a far more successful Chapter 13 case than if you have to make that payment every month.  That’s why we really like the wage orders.  



Another benefit of the wage order is it spreads the payment out over the month.  So, if you’re getting paid biweekly, you don’t have one big payment every month.  You’ve got smaller payments every other week, and that also can make the Chapter 13 case more likely to succeed.

The post Should I Do A Pre-Confirmation Wage Order In Chapter 13? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.



There are a lot of answers to this question.  One of is, it depends on if they have a lien.  A lot of Homeowner’s Associations can just file a piece of paper with the land records, and then they have a lien on your home, and getting rid of that lien might be a tricky thing to do. 



But, if they haven’t done that, and you owe Homeowner’s Association dues, and there’s a significant arrearage before you file your bankruptcy, you will be able to discharge that arrearage in your bankruptcy, whether it’s Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.



Now, the bad news is that you are going to have to pay those Homeowner’s Association dues after you file your bankruptcy case, no ifs, no ands, no buts.  You’re going to have to pay those as long as you are in title.



So, even if you got a condo and you’re surrendering the condo to the lender, and you have moved on to some other place, you’re going to be responsible for those Homeowner’s Association dues until that lender forecloses on the condo.  That may affect some of the planning of your case.

The post Do I Have To Pay My Homeowners Association Dues In Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

I say do this at your own risk.  This is generally speaking not a good idea because once you fall behind with the Chapter 13 Trustee, it’s very hard to make it up.  They’re paying attention to this.  They’re keeping journals and records, and if you fall enough behind, and it’s not very far, maybe a couple of months, they’ll file a motion to dismiss your Chapter 13 case, and really, if that happens, all of the payments you’ve made before are pretty much going to have gone for naught.



That’s one of the reasons why we really favor wage garnishments in Chapter 13 for our clients, because it makes it much, much more likely that you’re going to have a successful Chapter 13 case, so my strong advice to you, is don’t fall behind with your payments to the Chapter 13 Trustee.

The post Can I Skip A Payment To The Chapter 13 Trustee To Manage My Cash Flow? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.



I would say do not file bankruptcy now, because under the bankruptcy code, the Chapter 7 trustee can look back 10 years and see if you deposited assets in what’s called a self-settled trust, and basically, that’s an asset protection trust, where you take an asset and you put it into this trust, and you remain a beneficiary of the trust, and you did it really because you wanted to keep those assets out of the hands of your creditors.



That’s no good.  You’re going to have to wait 10 years from the day you transferred those assets until you can file bankruptcy, so if that’s what you’re plan is, be very careful and be aware of that 10‑year period.

The post Can I File Bankruptcy After Transferring Property Into An Asset Protection Trust? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

The short answer is yes.  You can deduct you’re not filing spouse’s credit card payments from the amount that you and your family are considered to have as household income for Chapter 7 purposes.

That might make the difference between you being able to file a Chapter 7 or you being forced into making some kind of repayment plan in Chapter 13.  So it’s important information to gather as you prepare to file your bankruptcy case.

The post Can I Deduct Some Of My Spouse’s Income So That I Can Qualify For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.



This is not good news because I feel bad for your dad, but the good news is that the bankruptcy code contemplates situations like this, and if you can establish, when you file the bankruptcy, that your dad (or you mom or whoever you have power of attorney for) is not mentally competent to do the credit counseling course, the course can be waived, and courts are fairly generous with that outcome so you shouldn’t shy away from filing the bankruptcy case just because of that one kind of unfortunate factor.

The post Can I Do Bankruptcy Credit Counseling For My Disabled Dad? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

The very bad news for you is yes, you can be forced to defend that lawsuit in Delaware because under the bankruptcy rules and statutes the bankruptcy courts have nationwide jurisdiction over you, so even if you’ve got nothing to do with a distance state they can still sue you, and force you to hire a lawyer out there and defend that lawsuit.  It doesn’t seem fair but that is the law.

The post Can I Be Sued In Delaware Bankruptcy Court Even If I’ve Never Done Business There? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.



The good news is, if you legitimately forgot to list that debt, and it’s a no‑asset case, you don’t have to go back and reopen your case after you’ve received your discharge.  That’s because the time to file a proof of claim never arose, and, therefore, that creditor is not prejudiced because he never had the opportunity to file a proof of claim because it was a no‑asset case.



Now, if that creditor believes that you committed fraud, either in connection with the bankruptcy case or in connection with how your debt was incurred with that creditor, that creditor can sue you for fraud, and, if they win, the debt won’t be discharged.  But if they lose, then that debt has been discharged.

The post Can I Add A Debt I Forgot To List In My Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.