Guide To Filing A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Utah

By Michelle Johnson


If you find that your income is not able to service your debts and cover your living expenses at the same time, you may need to seek legal protections. This is because your debt will only increase as interest continues to accrue and penalties added to an already bad debt. Your only option may be to seek bankruptcy protections. You can file a chapter 7 bankruptcy Utah to try and resolve the debt burden.

When you are declared bankrupt, the law will protect you from harassment by creditors and their agents. You will also be protected from the mushrooming debt since all debts will be frozen, so no interest will accrue. If creditors want to send a message to you, they must do it indirectly through the trustee. If they communicate to you directly, they can be charged in court.

When the proceedings are over, the debtor will be forgiven of all bad debts. While they would have lost most of their property, they will get a chance to start life afresh and free from debt. When you have your debts forgiven, you should learn from the experience to live below your means and avoid bad debt. That said, the benefits of this bankruptcy option far outweigh the disadvantages.

As you may already know, there are several other chapters that you can consider when seeking to become bankrupt. These are chapters 11 and 13. However, the former is only available to businesses and other types of organizations, not individuals. The latter, on the other hand, is only available to consumers with a reliable source of income.

Qualifying for chapter 7 bankruptcy is easy and anyone can qualify. This is because the debtor only needs to have qualifying debts and no means to repay it. The debtor can be an organization or an individual consumer. Whatever the case, the trustee must account for all non-exempt assets, make arrangements for an auction and sell items to recover funds to settle the debt.

It is important to note that the assets belonging to the debtor will be sold. The funds recovered from the sale is what will be used to pay off the debt. However, there are several exemptions that debtors are entitled to. One of them is the car exemption, but there is also the household exemption. A competent lawyer will advise you whether to choose the exemptions provided by the state or federal government.

Assets are normally disposed of through an auction organized by the trustee. Once all the non-exempt assets are sold, the proceeds of the sale are forwarded to all the creditors proportionately. Once this has been done, all the debts that were subject to the proceedings will be forgiven. Unfortunately, the auction will come with some publicity, which may damage your reputation and standing in society.

There are a number of serious consequences that come with this option. For one, your credit report will show that you are a bankrupt consumer. This means that you will not be able to qualify for conventional loans from banks and credit unions. Secondly, anyone who runs a credit check will know about your status. Which means that you may not be able to rent a house or car, since most landlords and car rental companies nowadays run credit checks. However, having all your bad debts written off can make all this worth it.




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