initial consultations with trustees
The other day I went to see a local trustee just for an initial consultation about my situation and consider bankruptcy in Canada. He advised me that until I decide to “pull the trigger” on the whole thing, that everything we talked about would be kept in confidence. I have just now looked at a web site that has given me a bit of a scare though. It said that you should not use credit after declaring bankruptcy. That part is obvious, but then it said that you should not use credit after even just meeting with an insolvency lawyer, or you may have to pay back what you use!!! I am assuming that a trustee and an insolvency lawyer are virtually the same thing for all intents and purposes. I still need to use my credit to pay the rent. If I go to a different trustee when I decide to “pull the trigger” on bankruptcy will my initial consultation with the first trustee somehow be found out about and thus I get in trouble for the credit I will have used after?
Going to a different licensed trusteeisn’t going to help things at all. Regardless of the trustee used, they are required to examine transactions that occurred on the “eve†of bankruptcy (i.e. at least 3 months previous, and up to a year if circumstances warrant). The bigger concern is that one of your creditors could oppose your discharge as you put a sizeable amount on your credit card prior to bankruptcy.
The best way to deal with this, with the least likelihood of difficulties, is to simply tell your trustee what has taken place, if he believes this is going to be a concern you can set the bankruptcy up so that as a component of the bankruptcy you will repay the monies spent on rent as a component of the bankruptcy (when I say repay, this is to be repaid as part of the bankruptcy estate and the monies will be divided equally among your creditors as required by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act).