Discharge timeline, surplus income and the new law
I live in Ontario. If I file before the new law comes into effect, will I still be entitled to a 9 month discharge? I thought the discretion was the trustee’s. Now it seems it may turn into 21 months of surplus income payments?
Should I hurry up and file? My surplus income would mean that I pay about $300month. For 21months?
I know I have to talk to a trustee but any help you can provide is great.
Keep up the great service.
Unfortunately I am unable to answer your question, for two reasons.
First, I have no idea when the new laws will come into force. The government announced last week that they want to move forward, but no timetable has been set. I would guess that no new laws will be in force before the middle of 2007 at the earliest.
Second, no-one has any idea how the new laws will be enforced. You are correct that the way the laws are written if anyone has any surplus income they will be bankrupt for at least 21 months. However, it is possible that a minimum threshold will be set, since it seems unreasonable to extend a bankruptcy for an additional year because the bankrupt had $1 in surplus income.
My advice would be to contact a licensed trustee to determine if bankruptcy makes sense for you now, and to keep checking back with this web site; as more information is available, we will post it here.