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Hello, Mr Flynn. This is Lana again. I have another question for you. As you know, we are buying a new homestead property for $330,000 for cash with the proceeds of our previous homestead sale. Our closing will be June 08. We will dismiss the case at the end of May. After closing, we'll only have $70,000 left, which we are planning to put into new homestead repairs, dental and health insurance, prepaying the condo maintenance, putting $5000 into IRA for 2012 and buying off the leased car. It'll take us about 2 months to go through this money. Are we safe from the creditors during that time? Will they sue us if they see $70,000 in our checking account? We then want to file a new Chapter 13 case within this year,where we will find a new attorney who will file a motion to extend the automatic stay, like you suggested. Can you please review my information and let me know what else we need to know. Thank you so much.Sincerely,Lana
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Florida Already Tried: that same local attorney
Hi Lana:In order for any creditor (other than the IRS and possibly other taxing/government authorities) to garnish wages or execute on assets (such as a checking account) they would need to have first obtained a judgment against you. Of course, I have no idea if any of your creditors sued you and obtained a judgment prior to your chapter 13. If they did, then you may be in danger of collection actions on the judgment including execution on the checking account. If there are no judgments against you, then the most your non-governmental creditors can do is file suit against you in the hopes of obtaining a judgment. If you feel it will take you a couple of months to get everything you need done with the money, then I would suspect it would be very difficult for your creditors to take advantage of you having those funds for that short period of time. I also am unaware of any way they would know you had those funds unless they followed the bankruptcy closely enough to read the pleadings related to the sale of your house and then assumed you still have those funds. If you are unaware of whether there are any judgments against you or not, you and your husband might each obtain credit reports, which almost always reflect unsatisfied judgments. The best way to do this if you haven't obtained your free credit reports for the year is www.annualcreditreport.com This is the actually free site where you won't need a credit card. I hope this answered your question. Good luck,John Flynn
Experience: 12 Years Experience in Bankruptcy - Mid-South Super Lawyer