Length of time to repay bankruptcy debt
My husband and I went bankrupt in April 2015. Before bankruptcy, I saved $900 towards a trip to England to see my father which I declared at the time of bankruptcy. The Trustee told me I could use the money for the trip but I would have to repay it back. We are now six months into our bankruptcy and the trustee has taken all our assets. At our second counselling meeting, we offered to repay this money over an 18 month period which is all we can afford. The Trustee totally refused this saying he wanted it repaid within nine months or he would not discharge us and would extend our bankruptcy to 21 months. We do not have enough income to do this and we are frightened that we would once again be in debt. The option he gave us is for him to unfreeze our RRSPs, which were paid before the 12 months bankruptcy deadline and to repay this debt using this money. We are aware that we have to pay back this debt but do not want to use our pension fund. By Law how long are we allowed to pay this debt?
When you file an Assignment in bankruptcy you are signing over everything that you own, have a right to or an interest in for the general benefit of your creditors. This excludes any assets that may fall under provincial exemptions. Depending on your province the assets you refer to may have qualified for an exemption. However, based on your recollection of the events it appears that you are in a province in which those assets are not exempt. Should the trustee oppose your discharge the matter will be then go before the Courts for a determination as to what the next steps in bankruptcy may be. The Court may order that you receive a discharge conditional on the repayment of the funds. If the courts feel this is inappropriate they could issue an Absolute Order of Discharge.