homestead

Beware the Living Trust! You May Lose Your Homestead

09/16/19
A living trust is a legal document that states who you want to manage and distribute your assets if you're unable to do so, and who receives them when you pass away.
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Fifth Circuit Goes Further Down the Disappearing Exemption Rabbit Hole

07/21/17
In yet another blow to the finality of exemptions, the Fifth Circuit has ruled that a chapter 7 debtor who claimed an IRA as exempt but later withdrew the proceeds must pay the funds to the trustee.   Engelhart v. Hawk (Matter of Hawk), No. 16-20641 (5th Cir.
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District Court Rules that Proceeds of a Texas Homestead Sold Post-Petition Lose Their Protection After Six Months in a Chapter 7 Case

03/17/17
Overruling a bankruptcy court decision, a District Judge in the Western District of Texas has ruled that proceeds from sale of a homestead can be recovered if not timely reinvested in a Chapter 7 case.   The Court ruled that the Frost decision applied equally in both a Chapter 13 and a Chapter 7 setting.   Lowe v. DeBerry, No. 5:15-cv-1135-RCL (W.D. Tex.
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Non-Filing Spouse Suffers Another Texas Homestead Loss

03/12/17
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 ("BAPCPA") capped the amount of a homestead exemption which could be claimed by a debtor that acquired a homestead within 1,215 days prior to bankruptcy.    Currently, the amount of the cap, as set by 11 U.S.C. Sec.
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Current Developments in Texas Homestead Law

02/04/16
            For this post, I attempted to find every Texas case dealing with a homestead exemption during the period between 2010 and 2015.     Many more cases interpreting the Texas constitutional and statutory laws on homesteads are decided in bankruptcy courts than in reported state court opinions.
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Second Western District Judge Finds Proceeds From Post-Petition Sale Can't Be Clawed Back in Chapter 7

11/05/15
After sorting through conflicting precedents, Judge Craig Gargotta has ruled that a chapter 7 debtor who owned a homestead property on the date of bankruptcy and claimed the property as exempt did not lose the exemption when the property was sold and proceeds were not reinvested within six months.    Lowe v. DeBerry (In re Deberry), Adv. No. 15-5054 (Bankr. W.D. Tex.
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Fifth Circuit Report: August-September 2015

10/23/15

The summer months have been slow at the Fifth Circuit.   August and September's opinions include an update on a prior opinion about abstention related to a chapter 15, judicial estoppel, mootness of an appeal of a sale order, a motion to compromise, removal of a trustee, recognition of a foreign judgment and issues relating to a homestead.
 
Bankruptcy; Abstention; Remand

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Texas Judges Explore State Law on Liens and Homestead Exemptions

09/08/15
Much state law regarding liens and property rights emerges from the Bankruptcy Courts because they are frequently the first to confront novel issues.   Two recent opinions from the Western District of Texas bankruptcy judges confirm this trend.   In one case, Judge Tony Davis found that an option to acquire a leased homestead could be claimed as exempt, No. 14-11006, James Wayne See (Bankr. W.D. Tex.
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Debtors Cannot Claim Homestead Exemption In Carve-out Funds Recovered By Trustee.

07/16/15

underwaterhouse In a July 2015 case the Chapter 7 Trustee sold a house that was underwater with three liens, and received a carve-out from the lender that held the second and third liens.  The Debtors did not object to the sale, but to the Trustee’s Final Report because it did not allow for payment of their homestead exemptions from

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Florida Homestead Exemption

06/02/15

Article X, Section 4 (a) of the Florida Constitution provides for the Florida "homestead" exemption. This homestead exemption is in most cases available to those who file for bankruptcy relief in Florida.

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