Missing Bankruptcy Creditors

Copyright (c) 2014 Mark Shapiro

What will happen if you omit a creditor from bankruptcy (BK) mail matrix? What are the consequences of not listing all your creditors on the court filed bankruptcy documents? This article discusses this potential issue and the way you can correct it.

One of my many judgment-related: I'm a Judgment Broker, not an attorney. This article is only my opinion based on my long term experience, please hire a lawyer if you need legal advice.

Generally, unsecured creditors are prohibited from collecting their debt from you, some time after a successful BK discharge.

The BK schedules contain the names and addresses of the balances due, the creditor's names, and some other info concerning all your debts. Depending on the BK situation, failing to list all creditors in the BK mailing matrix might then create financial complications for your BK case.

The impact of this potential problem depends on if you file a Chapter 13 or 7 BK, whether the debt is secured or unsecured, and whether the Chapter Seven BK is a no-asset or an asset case. Not listing creditors in your creditor mailing matrix may turn out to be expensive or be just fine.

The mailing matrix (also called the creditor mailing list) is a list, alphabetically arranged, of all your BK creditors. The court will send notice about the BK filing to every person or entity on the matrix list. If a creditor does not get any notice of the filing of your bankruptcy case, that creditor will lose the opportunity to attend your BK.

Certain people intentionally omit creditors on the mailing matrix, or their debts from their bankruptcy schedules. This kind of information withholding can become a huge financial problem.

One signs their BK paperwork under penalty of perjury. If one intentionally omits their debts or creditors, they are lying to your BK court. If that court finds out, they'll probably deny your bankruptcy case.

How can you be certain that the BK court correctly included all your creditors in the BK mailing list? Look closely at your mailing matrix, and match it line by line to the creditor list on the BK paperwork.

One can also check that you've listed every one of your creditors, by looking at your credit report. Some debts will not be on a credit report, so do not rely entirely on your credit report when preparing your BK debt and creditor lists.

What will happen if you don't list a creditor in your Chapter Seven mailing matrix? What happens depends on whether you have an asset or no-asset bankruptcy case.

With a no-asset Chapter Seven BK case, there's insufficient money available for the trustee to give anything to the creditors and/or, you do not own any property or assets that a trustee will be able to sell for money.

Unsecured creditors don't have to file a proof of claim(s) with a no-asset bankruptcy case. Since no claims are required, omitting a creditor does not change their tiny chance to get paid any money.

However, in a no asset BK case, when you fail to include secured creditors, the creditor might later (maybe when you inherit assets) take actions legally like foreclosure, repossession, or a garnishment; to recover the debt after your BK discharge.

With Chapter Seven bankruptcy cases with available assets, the omission of creditors can be more problematic. If a creditor does not get any any notice about your bankruptcy filing, that creditor loses any opportunity to file their proof of claim, and any chances to receive any payment from the BK case.

In BK cases with assets, not sending notice to creditors allows a creditor to recover nonexempt assets and money from you after your BK discharge.

What will happen if onedoesn't list a creditor in their Chapter Thirteen BK filing? If one fails to put creditors in a Chapter 13 case, that creditor will not be informed of your BK application, and your debt to them won't get exempted at the conclusion of your bankruptcy case.

By including all of your debts on your Chapter Thirteen plan, the plan will automatically handle the payment of all your debts, instead of leaving control of repayment to some creditor. Post-discharge collection can be serious because when you have a completed repayment plan, you might still be owing the creditors you did not include in the Chapter Thirteen BK case.

What can one do when they discover that they should have added a creditor to their bankruptcy mailing matrix? Most of the time, you will be permitted to include the new debt to the bankruptcy if you file a document with the court which tells why you omitted the creditor.

Your filed bankruptcy paperwork should list the needed information about the new debt, and state if the additional debt will have an effect on the case. If including the debt effects your case, you might have to amend your Chapter Thirteen plan or your Chapter Seven (asset) Statement of Intention.

In any bankruptcy, it's smart to think carefully and do some research, prior to signing and filing your bankruptcy petition.


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Mark Shapiro - Judgment Broker - http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - where Judgments go and are quickly Collected!