Communism is hard! Let's go shopping!

[featherynscale]

I went to see the lawyer about filing my Chapter 7 yesterday. As I expected, he gave me a sheaf of paper several inches thick, which I am to fill out before Monday. Most of this paper is an inventory of personal property, which is where it all goes weird. I haven't any idea who owns a lot of the stuff in the house. And I'm not sure how to list some of the things I'm pretty sure are mine. I mean, bed, sofa, that's pretty self-explanatory. Viking defense pans, large glass heads, reproduction edged weapons, disreputable santa suit, that stuff's a little harder to deal with. And that's not even getting into items like "handcrafted leather collar and restraints set" and other related items.
The next fun bit is that you have to assign a value to everything. Here again, no clue. Most of everything that I am sure is mine was given to me, bought at a thrift store, or somehow similarly acquired in a manner that has little to do with retail value. So I am just sort of roundly making it up. "Sofa, $50. Shoe rack, $2. 4 pairs Dr. Martens boots, $40. Craft supplies, $50. Costumery, $150.", etc.
Also, there's a line on the papers for "Animals, please specify if animal is pet or breeding stock". So I mark down "mixed-breed dog (pet)". They want a value for this, too. My paperwork says (seriously) "I'd have to pay someone to take him."
I think I'm going to need some help with this process.

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought, but then, it doesn't say anything like that on the form, and all he said about it was something like "I don't need an inventory of every dish, pot and pan". This led me to think that perhaps I should list things in groups...

[chainwoman.livejournal.com]

Basically it's like renters or homeowners insurance. You can be vague as you want when it comes to details (clothes $xxx, electronics $xxx, etc), but certain big items you want to list with detail because you want them covered.

Basically if the bankruptcy court discovers you have something big that you did not list, five big screen tvs, they will dismiss your bankruptcy and you'll have to do some juggeling to get things reinstated...

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Does that mean that creditors are going to "contest" her inventory with htings that were bought on their accounts? I'm trying to understand the process...

If that's the case, what can she do when she has to say "my slimeball ex bought all of the computer crap in those years..." I guess since a lot of it is comp stuff, and that depreciates so fast, maybe it's not a big deal...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's a problem -- they specifically ask about charges in the last year, and I don't have any. Even at that, all slimeball-ex-related charges are three or more years in the past, so I don't think they'll pull any of that. Anyway, I'm guessing that the bulk of the actual charges on the cards are more likely to be for food or gas than anything else -- that's what I seem to remember charging a lot.

[chainwoman.livejournal.com]

Are we talking unsecured credit cards? If so, they can't take crap. If we're talking Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc store credit cards or a loan on any property they may ask for their property back. However, they won't just come and take it without your(her) knowledge.