Oceanside, CA Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

There are special provisions in the bankruptcy code that give protections to HOA's that others don't have. The HOA fees incurred after bankruptcy until the property is no longer owned by you are owed. It doesn't matter whether you move out at an earlier time than foreclosure or short sale.

There is no easy answer to this question. Depending on the size of the refund and the source of the refund, for example, if the refund is due to earned income credit or is relatively modest, say under $1,200, it may be possible to file bankruptcy right away & still keep the entire refund. You would need to review all the exemptions available to you to help you figure out the answer.

You are not likely to avoid the preference litigation by exempting the property because you can only exempt assets you own. You don't need to pay anything. Your friend may need to. Your friend should negotiate payment of a smaller amount in settlement of the $1,950. To determine whether the Trustee can prove the preference claim, it would seem to be important to determine whether you were insolvent at the time you made the payment. In other words, were you able to pay your debts as they arose at that time? If the judgment you mention is what rendered you unable to make the payments, you may be able that were not insolvent and that the $1,950 payback to your friend did not render you insolvent and, therefore, defeat the preference action. Unfortunately, for you to do that, you will have to challenge the trustee to go ahead and file the lawsuit and defend, which is expensive if you hire an attorney. If you represent yourself, you will likely misunderstand some law or miss some deadline and lose. This is what the trustee is counting on that the transferee (i.e., your friend) will see that it is impractical for him to fight the Trustee even if he thinks he will win and instead pay the Trustee what the Trustee requests.