Preparation is the key for success when filing bankruptcy in Florida. The best bankruptcy cases go unnoticed as debtors glide through the system without attracting attention to receive a full discharges in record time. Luck is not involved. Planning began months before filing.
The most successful filers know something that you don’t. Small lifestyle changes may alter means test income and expenses before filing. Well-planned strategic changes will have a dramatic effect on the results of the means test. With a few weeks or months to plan, creating $300 improvement on the bankruptcy means test calculation will save $18,000 in wasted Chapter 13 payments. Just as easily, many people avoid Chapter 13 altogether and may file Chapter 7 when understanding the test procedure. Timing is critical.
2010 Bankruptcy Strategies and the Means Test Explained
Fla.Stat. Sec. 222.03 provides, in part, Survey at instance of dissatisfied creditor. If the creditor in any execution or process sought to be levied is dissatisfied with the quantity of land selected and set apart, and shall himself or herself, or by his or her agent or attorney, notify the officer levying, the officer shall at the creditor's request cause the same to be surveyed, and when the homestead is not within the corporate limits of any town or city, the person claiming said exemption shall have the right to set apart that portion of land belonging to him or her which includes the residence, or not, at the person's option, and if the first tract or parcel does not contain 160 acres, the said officer shall set apart the remainder from any other tract or tracts claimed by the debtor, but in every case taking all the land lying contiguous until the whole quantity of 160 acres is made up. The person claiming the exemption shall not be forced to take as his or her homestead any tract or portion of a tract, if any defect exists in the title, except at the person's option. The expense of such survey shall be chargeable on the execution as costs; but if it shall appear that the person claiming such exemption does not own more than 160 acres in the state, the expenses of said survey shall be paid by the person directing the same to be made.
In practice, creditors may file objections with Florida bankruptcy courts regarding the extent of the exemption, designation, and liens which arise through operation of law. Florida bankruptcy courts are wary of all sales to insiders in the one year before and during the pendency of all cases.
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