Sad news – we shut our doors/bankrupt/lawsuit

I did have one or two break downs this past weekend, but am feeling better now. We have the "floor people" coming this week to take out the nine year old rug - they certainly have been abused with two babies and two cats puking and spilling on them. We are using some our mutual fund investments to buy hard wood floors to get the place ready to sell (lawyer says it is fine - need improvements to sell in this market and we were going to do this any way).

We need to have the place painted. We are buying new appliances (realtors suggested stainless steel stuff as that is what everyone is asking for when looking at places) so the kitchen looks nice and putting in new tile on the kitchen floor.

That should spend a good portion of the money and help us out in reselling next year.

And the Sox won the World Series so yes I am feeling better!

Re: Sad news - we shut our doors/bankrupt/lawsuit


Excellent, Linkat!

I always worry about the employees in these situations. It's a habit. Because where I live (Australia) too often a declaration of an employer's bankruptcy has meant workers have missed out on entitlements which should have been protected by law. Or they've only received a proportion of what they were rightfully owed. It makes me very angry on their behalf.

The manager that walked out on my husband has been sending almost threatening emails.

The first one I saw - I happen to be there when my husband opened it - I read it quickly while he scrolled through it - he really didn't want me to see it as it was really uncalled for.

I don't know how many he has received, but when I was on the computer yesterday, I saw another one. Basically saying that my husband was required to pay the employees within 24 hours after closing. Not true - he does need to pay them, but how is that possible? You need to true up the numbers and send them to the payroll company, then they have to process and mail the checks out - so 24 hours isn't even possible.

He then went on to say how he expected his check this Friday with such and such hours and he even threatened to show up at our house.

We have received the checks from the payroll company and are sending them out today - not because of threats from this bozo, but because these employees worked hard and deserve to be paid.

Seems, the more irrational the demand, the more strongly it is made.

Just saw this. Man, Linkat, you've certainly got your hands full. I'm really sorry things are going badly for your family right now. I hope there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks - there is some light - our rug is being replaced with hard wood - it looks awesome - gotta spend the money some where before we file at least our place will look top notch for sale next year.

spammers


any-who

I dont have any words of advice for ya.
I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry to hear this is happening for you guys, and I hope things work out .

(big hug )


Now.....................








move to austin..

I haven't seen that before either. I am so sorry Linkat, having to burry
your dreams of your own business is disheartening enough, then to deal
with disgruntled managers is even worse.

Can't you have a lawyer draw up a letter to send to this manager?
It is not out of malicious reason your husband had to
close his doors, he tried his best!

This manager should realize that his threatening emails can (and should)
have some repercussions.

Well it will be the Dallas/Ft Worth area - but close enough considering where I'm coming from!

I've thought of something like that, but my husband wants to just get everything settled and not deal with it any more.

The guy is bi-polar and takes medication for it - best to just forget about him.

Any how my husband is bringing all the paperwork today to the lawyer - hopefully all will be filed in the next two weeks and then we can settle on a price for the cars. The lawyer felt that the creditors will not really want to have to deal with the cars at all so they should be willing to negotiate a low ball figure for them and allow us to pay it back over 4 months or so. He said they rarely take posssession of the cars - unless the individuals decided not to buy back the cars. They really just want to recoup as much money as possible.

Linkat, I'm so sorry to hear about this. Hopefully the manager will stop the harassment after he gets paid.

Linkat, so sorry to hear the latest -- you have really had your hands full. I hope things look up soon.

Thanks - I told my husband last night I am so looking forward to 2008 - hopefully at that point any way all this bankrupcy business crap should be over and we can hopefully look forward to the future.

We also have to attend a credit type class - seems odd to me as I have always had excellent credit - it is just the business that will wreck it. Oh well we will go through the motions and this too will pass.

Linkat
Linkat, you may want to consider the following:

In New Mexico, you are allowed to keep two cars and your home.

You may be able to transfer ownership of some of your assets to other family members, over a period of time, but begin right away.

If you have large credit card debt, pay a small sum on them to show good faith attempts.

Sell your house and buy your new house before filing for bankruptcy. You will get a better mortgage rate than if you buy after bankruptcy. Check your FICA credit rating and evaluate the impact bankruptcy will have on it for any large purchases you will have to make.

Find a reputable licensed credit restoration service to help you quickly rebuild your credit rating after filing bankruptcy. Otherwise it will take seven years for your good credit rating to be restored.

I hope you come out of this OK.

BBB

Thanks, BBB. In MA you keep your home/equity in your home. You do not get to keep any cars. It sort of depends though, if we owed a good amount on both our cars, we could probably keep them as the value would be less than the loan. But because we actually paid off our cars, they can take them away. They cannot take any of our household items. As our lawyer noted - do not transfer any money to family members as this will be questioned/tracked. We are filing this month as it is in our best interests according to the lawyer.

We do not have any credit card debt or really any personal debt besides our mortgage. The only debt we have is associated with the business. All other personal bills have been paid on time and we currently have (before filing of course) excellent credit. We ran a credit report and there is absolutely nothing in either of our history of not paying on time.

We cannot wait to sell and buy a new house because we are not relocating until next summer. We cannot keep the business running until then or we will be losing more and more money.

We are required to attend a credit class which will go over how to restore our credit. I have been doing some research on this and it appears that should be even easier to get a mortgage than a car loan after bankruptcy. Weird huh? I figure if we have to get a higher rate on a mortgage initially, we can always re-finance in a couple of years. Also, we plan on putting down at least 20% and paying 2 points at closing (work, with the relocation, will pay one of the points). The mortgage will also be lower than what we currently have. I have also already pre-qualified with only my income (not hubby's) - granted this will change once bankruptcy is filed, but I wanted to get an idea any how. The mortgage broker said with my income and all the retirement we have accumulated - it was not even in question whether I would qualify.

The lawyer felt under the circumstances - my income level, our past history and the fact that this is strictly business related, it shouldn't be too bad for us - developing credit, getting a mortgage in the future, etc.

Linkat
Linkat, glad to learn that you are and will be in much better financial condition than most people forced into bankruptcy. Good long-term planning on your part long ago.

BBB

Re: Linkat


Thanks - as the lawyer put it we will not come out of it unscathed, but we will probably be better off in the long run than trying to pay off all the associated debt with the business.

I just found out too that my cash value on my life insurance is also not protected. We may be able to take a portion of that and roll it into an IRA for my husband though.

We may also trade in our older car, buy one about a year old and put down the mininimum amount and use the rest to pay off taxes/insurances/etc. That way we do have one car (with a payment which will help establish good credit again). And then buy back the other car over a few months.

This morning we were supposed to sign papers and file for bankrupcy. When we meet with the lawyer he had some bad news. Right now in our state, they cannot collect money from your potential income - that includes things like your potential income tax return and my bonus expected in December as these are not yet payable. However, some states have allowed this - especially the income tax returns. This was just brought up last week as a potential thing for our state. So his thoughts are - we are the perfect case to use as an example (lucky us) because of my income level and that we could re-coup losses in next year's tax return. This could cause this case to carry for quite a while as it is debated and all the while add to more litigation costs, etc. as they determine whether this is legal or not.

So the lawyer figured he would see if the creditors would settle. We agreed that $20k would be reasonable seeing this would be better than what they would get with bankrupcy. The loan company absolutely refused to settle.

The only plus side is our attorney has many years of experience and knows which Trustees are the best to deal with. He is seeking the right day to file so that we would have the one trustees that favors the consumer and likes to wrap things up rather than leaving them to linger. We can only put our hopes in trust in him at this point.

Well we filed today. Attorney saw that the one trustee he wanted was available. My husband told me to get to the office to sign the papers - had to take an early lunch and run out to sign.

I watched him file - now our court date is Jan. 8. All we can do now is wait, prepare for the worst and pray for the best.

How scary, Linkat. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for you.