CPR has its place when human life is involved. Human life is precious.

But if what’s dying is the legal right to collect a debt?   Not so fast.

You don’t want to breathe new life into an old debt that is legally dead.

Yet you can do that, unintentionally reviving a debt that is legally dead or giving it new life when it’s approaching its life’s end.

California statute of limitations can be tricky.  I  intended to explain in this post the law and how to keep from unwittingly extending your legal exposure to a debt.

I’ve concluded that the law is simply too complicated and evolving to provide a nuanced, reliable guide to avoiding screw ups.

So, I’m adopting the Nancy Reagan approach to the statute of limitations.

Just Say No! 

NO, I don’t owe it.

NO, I won’t pay it.

While it may stretch the truth as to whether you owe it, it’s simple and safe.  It keeps you from adding to your exposure to old debts.

Admit nothing.

Avoid extending the statute of limitations

• Make a payment on the debt
• Admit that you owe the debt

Important to note that either of these ways of extending the life of a debt are acts that you, the person who owes the money, take.  The debt collector can’t extend the statute unilaterally.  Only by getting you to do something against your interests is the life of the debt prolonged.

Payment breathes new life

Making a payment on the debt is putting your money where your mouth is:  you wouldn’t pay anything if you thought you didn’t owe money.

So payment is seen as proof that you owe the money.

Payment starts the statute of limitations clock running again, from the beginning.

That’s where the debt collector’s request for a “good faith” payment on a debt you can’t pay off at this time is so insidious.  The debt collector cares far less about the amount of that “good faith” payment than he does about the fact that you’ve just extended your legal exposure to the debt for an entirely new period.  What that period is we’ll discuss below.

Admitting the debt is fatal

An admission that you owe the debt, even without payment, can reset the SOL clock.

California law provides that only an admission of the debt in writing can extend the statute:

No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract, by which to take the case out of the operation of this title, unless the same is contained in some writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby, provided that any payment on account of principal or interest due on a promissory note made by the party to be charged shall be deemed a sufficient acknowledgment or promise of a continuing contract to stop, from time to time as any such payment is made, the running of the time within which an action may be commenced upon the principal sum or upon any installment of principal or interest due on such note, and to start the running of a new period of time, but no such payment of itself shall revive a cause of action once barred.  Code of Civil Procedure 360.

Yet there are precious few cases on the subject.

And while traditionally, the statute of limitations that applies to any collection suit was the law of the state where the defendant lives, recent cases make that less certain.  Topping off the uncertainty, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that in bankruptcy, the statute of limitations of the state whose law applied to the contract controlled, not the shorter statute where the debtor lived.  Sterba

All of which makes saying nothing, or saying no, the safest course of action if you have an old debt that you can’t pay.

Why have a statute of limitations

Pubic policy says we want legal disputes resolved sooner rather than later.  If a lawsuit is involved,  we want the evidence  available and memories fresh.

It’s the legal version of  SNOOZE, YOU LOSE.

A debt collector or a debt buyer has the same statute of limitation as the original creditor.

When does the limitations clock start running

The SOL clock starts running on the limitations period upon the last activity on the debt.  That activity could be a payment on a debt;  it could be a charge on an open account.

If there are neither charges nor payments on a contract debt after that, the period runs for four years in California. 

Once the limitations period has run, the person who owes the debt has a slam-bang winner of a defense if the creditor files a lawsuit to collect. 

More from the FTC on time barred debts.

More here on debt collection lawsuits

What to do when you’ve been sued

Time is short when you get a notice that a creditor has levied your bank account.

California has protections that may allow you to recover money that’s been seized.

But success in getting your money back depends on prompt action and following the procedures.

Bank levy basics

A creditor with a judgment is entitled to levy your bank account to collect the money you owe.

All about judgments

You have an offsetting right to keep some money by claiming exemptions.

A levy only catches the money that is in your account when the levy is served.  It doesn’t affect money deposited to the account later.

Your bank has few choices when a levy is served.  By law, it must hold the money in the account on the day the levy is served for the creditor.

And it must deliver to you a notice of the levy and information about your rights to claim exemptions.

What you can keep

Let’s assume that the money in the levied bank account consists of your wages.

California exemption law protects a minimum of 75% of take home pay.  A non-support creditor simply can’t reach the 75% that is exempt. Cal. Code of Civil Procedure 704.070.

If your wages were already garnished before they were paid to you, what you take home is exempt from further levy.

And, you may be able to protect more than 75% of your wages if you show that you need more than 75% to provide for yourself and your family.

California law grants absolute protection to the assets of and distributions from private retirement plans and retirement-focused profit sharing plans.  CCP 704.115.

Public retirement benefits are also exempt.  CCP 704.110.

Federal law protects Social Security.

Claiming funds exempt

When a bank account is levied,  CCP 700.010 requires the levying officer to serve on the judgment debtor these documents:

• the writ of execution (issued by the court)
• a notice of the levy
• a list of exemptions prepared by the Judicial Council

The last item, the list of exemptions, is your key to regaining some part of the bank balance if they are traceable to wages.

The notice of levy contains the critical instructions and the time line:

To claim an exemption, you complete the Claim of Exemption form and give it to the levying officer, typically the sheriff.  If you contend that the levied money is necessary for your support and for the support of your dependents, you also complete the Financial Statement.

The judgment creditor then has a choice.  It can agree that the levied funds are exempt and they are returned to you.  Or, the judgment creditor can set a hearing before a judge to challenge your claim of exemption.

Serve papers on time

The burden is on you as the judgment debtor to complete your clams of exemption and get them back to the levying officer on time.

A successful claim of exemption protects your funds from this levy.  While it may give the creditor some visibility into your finance, it doesn’t solve the bigger problem created by the judgment.

Consider consulting with a credit counseling agency or a bankruptcy lawyer to assess the bigger picture of your finances.  Even if the creditor has a judgment, the debt may still be dischargeable in bankruptcy.

More

Collection lawsuits in California

Property safe from creditors under California law

Myths about bankruptcy

Image © vladimirfloyd

California’s homestead exemption is the Super Hero of the exemption world.

While other exemptions protect things worth a thousand dollars here and a couple of thousand there, the homestead protects $75,000 for a single person and $100,000 for a couple.

For the elderly or disabled, the homestead balloons to $175,000.

The homestead may be powerful and famous but often not well understood.

Here are six things you probably didn’t know about the homestead.

Homestead superior to a judgment creditor

Homesteads protect homeowners from a particular kind of creditor- the judgment creditor.  A judgment results from a lawsuit and the determination that you owe the plaintiff who brought the action a certain amount of money.  All about California judgments.

The judgment entitles the judgment creditor to use certain legal powers of the state to collect that money.  That right to collect is limited by the judgment debtor’s homestead rights.

The homestead exemption was designed to assure judgment debtors of a place to live, even if they owed money to creditors.

Homestead protection not absolute

The California homestead does not guarantee you that a creditor can’t force a sale of your home to pay a debt.

Instead, it guarantees that you get the dollar value of your homestead from the forced sale of your home before the creditor forcing the sale gets any money.

More about the limitations on homestead protection

A creditor who seeks to levy on a homestead has to convince the sheriff or a judge that any sheriff’s sale will return enough money to pay the homeowner the homestead.

The cost of making sure that the homeowner gets their homestead first restrains judgment creditors from looking to home equity as a source of payment.  It’s just too expensive and uncertain in most cases.

Homestead no protection from foreclosure

California law allows you to pledge your homestead as collateral for a loan.

So, when you encumber your home as part of the purchase transaction, or tap the equity through a HELOC or refinance, you give the lender the right to foreclose on your home without regard to your homestead.

The law says a foreclosure that doesn’t pay you your homestead is OK, because the transaction that put your homestead at risk was voluntary.

Homesteads come in two styles

Own your home and you automatically have a homestead exemption.  You don’t have to do anything to get certain protection of your equity from judicial creditors.  CCP 704.710.

The automatic homestead has the same monetary measurements as its beefier, more powerful sibling, the declared homestead. The automatic homestead only protects the home against a forced sale that wouldn’t yield enough proceeds to pay the homestead before paying the creditor.

If you choose to sell your home and a creditor has recorded a judgment lien that attaches to your property, the judgment creditor gets paid from the sale before you get your homestead.

The declared homestead operates differently:  the homestead amounts are the same, but the declared homestead protects exempt equity if you voluntarily sell your home.  CCP 704.910.

The exempt proceeds remain protected for six months from the voluntary sale of the home.   That six month period is intended to provide a window in which you can reinvest the homestead in a replacement home.

Either spouse can claim the entire exemption

When a married couple is entitled to a homestead, but the debt is an obligation of only one spouse, the debtor spouse can assert the entire homestead available to a married couple.

One of my cases established this proposition in a bankruptcy case.  When only one spouse filed bankruptcy and only his half of a tenancy in common came into the bankruptcy estate, he could still claim the entire exemption available to a married man.  McFall.

California homestead powerless against the feds

Since the homestead is found in state law, it does not limit the collection powers of the IRS or other federal agencies.  The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution says federal law trumps state law.

The IRS has its own, much smaller set of exemptions for delinquent tax payers.  Those exemptions aren’t much force protecting a California home.

In the real world, however,  the IRS seldom tries to force the sale of homes.  Like most other creditors with a lien on real property, the IRS simply waits til the homeowner wants to sell or refinance.  Either sale or refinance generally require that tax liens be paid before the transaction closes.

Now, you know about California homestead exemptions

More important California law:

How long before foreclosing lender takes my house?

California protections after foreclosure

California bankruptcy law

Image courtesy of Laobc. 

The horror stories about do-it-yourself estate planning are both plentiful and tragic.

Between the fear of probate and the fear of legal fees, inventive people invent inexpensive strategies for passing property to the next generation.

Adding someone to the deed is the most common one I see.

It works like this: in order to see that her house passes to her kids at her death, Mom puts the “kids” on the deed to her house today.

She thinks that will assure that, at her passing, real property law will automatically make the kids the owners.  No probate, no fuss, no delay.

What Mom doesn’t fully understand is that her deed to the kids gives them an interest in the house, TODAY.

So, if there is a economic melt-down the the kids’ financial lives, the kid’s creditors can lien and levy their interest in Mom’s house.

Far from creating stability and simplicity, the add-them-to-the-deed trick can create chaos.  And land Mom in bankruptcy court, fighting a bankruptcy trustee.

California, bless its heart, has enacted a solution:  a deed effective only on death.

Transfer on Death Deed

Created by Probate Code 5642, a Transfer on Death deed gives the “kids”, in my example, an interest in the house effective only at Mom’s death.

The deed is revocable as long as Mom is competent.  It can be used only for a home or a multi-family unit of 4 units or less.

It doesn’t protect the kids’ interest in the house from Mom’s debts, but a recent amendment protects the transfer from Medi-Cal Recovery claims.

The deed must be recorded within 60 days of execution.  Unlike other deeds, it doesn’t need to be delivered to the beneficiaries to be effective.

Why Deed on Death works

What’s magic about the Deed On Death is that the next generation has no interest in the property until Mom’s death.

There is nothing for the kid’s creditors until Mom’s passing.

So, if the kids end up in bankruptcy, they don’t drag Mom along and find the trustee selling Mom’s share of the house.

Stay out of bankruptcy and we may never meet.

There’s a form for that

The statute provides a form which must be used and has a FAQ page.

You can get more information online from the Sacramento Public  Library (yeah, libraries!) or from CANHR.

Let’s keep DIY estate planning disasters out of California bankruptcy courts.

More

The huge cost of avoiding probate

Joint bank accounts in bankruptcy

The problem your bankruptcy lawyer can’t fix