Bankruptcy

[Daishi]

This is a very sensitive subject for me, however I am looking for opinions from the tech community on it.. This past year has been screwing me left and right financially. I'll let you all in on what has happened:

A year ago, I caught 2 of my landlord's employees searching my apartment when I came back early from class. One was going through boxes in my roommate's room, and the other was looking through my kitchen's cabinets. They refused to tell me why they were doing this, and they handed me an eviction notice and left. I would have called the police right then, but I didn't have a phone so the two got away. A lot of threats later, it turned out that my roommate's rent checks were bouncing. He high tailed and ran taking a lot of my money with him, and I was forced to leave as well because I wouldn't have been able to pay his rent and mine. I was not going to live in an apartment where the landlord will conduct random and illegal searches. The rentals company later sued me for more than 5 grand in his lost rent, and all of the rent that I didn't pay after leaving the apartment until the end of the lease (a year's worth). My argument was that I had a right to leave because they conducted an illegal search, which is a direct violation of the lease, and that I was 17 when I signed the lease. They agreed with me in court that they conducted the search, but the judge ruled in their favor because he felt the rental company should have a right to search their apartment no matter what the lease says. I now owe more than 5 grand to them.

I do have quite a bit of money saved up, so that only bothered me a little bit. However, the plot thickens.. I went to check my college grades online a few days ago. I got a message saying that I wasn't taking any classes. It told me that I had an outstanding balance. I applied for a student loan at the start of the semester, and I made sure that I signed everything. I had made sure that Parkland got its money (I do have receipts and balance statements confirming that I owe them no money). But apparently they had a problem with the loan, and are claiming that I never signed that 'last piece of paper'. I can't apply for the loan now, and I have to pay the amount out of my pocket *now* if I want to graduate at the end of this semester, and have all the 19 credit hours I'm taking actually count. More than 2 grand.

Now, normally I would just kill myself. But, I got a full-time job offer from a major university to do what I love to do (i.e. program), with people who I really want to work with (i.e. good programmers). I don't want to screw up that situation in the least bit. But, I am so screwed as far as debt goes that it seems like the only way I can possibly manage to get through is to file bankruptcy. I have no idea how this will affect me, or my chances of getting a job and a place to leave at that University. I refuse to file for bankruptcy if it is going to screw over my chances of getting hired there. Can I get some comments or suggestions from you all on what I should do. I would really, really appreciate it.

-Fredric

[jwenting]

Bankruptcy will stay on your credit sheet a LONG time, you'll effectively not be able to get another loan for anything, possibly for the rest of your life.

[server_crash]

I don't know much, but I think your best bet would be consumer credit counsiling to see what they say. If you do think about filing bankrupcy, then at least take a look into the chapter 13 plan.

Not sure if that will help or not. I don't know much about the subject.

[Daishi]

Thank you for the replies. I managed to talk some sense into the financial aid loan place today and they reinstated the loan...so there is a bit less pressure on me now.

I'll keep that in mind jwenting. I might actually want to get a house and a family sometime down the line, and those are both prone to requiring loans.. I guess my best bet would be to go and talk to a real professional about this, they could probably shed some more light on the subject, I just don't want to get myself completely screwed over even more than I already am.

Anyone here ever filed for bankruptcy before? I know all of the horror stories of how you'll end up on the street corner with a cup of change, but I have a feeling that the majority of that is coming from very biased sources, which leads me to not believe it so much.

-Fredric

[jwenting]

I've only been part of a group filing to get our employer declared bankrupt.
They'd not paid our salaries for 5 months and we needed that bankruptcy to have any chance at all to get unemployment benefits (and maybe some of our unpaid salaries).

Not pretty, having to do that to a company you worked for happily for 5 years. Doing it to yourself must be even worse.

[Lightninghawk]

Bud theirs a new bankruptcy law in effect too. Don't even consider it.

Look there are a lot of things that go wrong in life. I'm 18 but I've been through hell. You don't even want half of my background. I'm a good kid an all, but I've been handed some pretty crappy deals.

If you want to make things right. I would suggest trying to cut a few deals with the people that are requesting the money from you. If you have already paid them. Great. You don't have much to worry about. But if you haven't Try to work out some kind of time basis to spread it out over.

Just go to them face to face and tell them. You do not have the funds right now to pay everything upfront. But if they will allow you to, you would like to work something out so that you can pay a little every month for so many months. Normally they will consider something like this if you show your honesty and concern by admitting you don't have it but are willing to pay it.

Then if you are able to keep up in the classes you are registering for be like me. Get three jobs, ride a bicycle, and tell your significant other that dates are going to be time limited and fast food, that or catching a movie at the house.

That will save you a ton of money right there.

Though if all else fails find a good lawyer that does dirty cases, and needs to ease his conscience ;)

Oh and please don't resort to killing yourself. You won't accomplish anything except making your friends and family sad. I'm being serious. Don't think about just your situation. Think about the situation you would leave people in. I'm sure you have a ton of friends that would be willing to help you out in any way they can.

[jwenting]

Well said, I see you've been through hell and lived to tell the tale as well.

[Daishi]

Thank you, it was reassuring to hear that.

You're right, if I can convince them to accept my offers for repayment then I would be set. The only problem is that they think my parents are rich and will pay for all this, so they won't accept anything less than all of the money. I made an offer of $200 a month, which is really all that I know I can pay. I haven't gotten a yes or no from them, and it has been 3 weeks. I assume that they're just going to ignore me and grab my bank accounts and garnish my wages, thinking that I'm hiding some huge pile of money from them, when I actually only have enough to make my move out of state if I get the job at the University (which I REALLY hope I do!!!).

-Fredric