Bank account FROZEN! Please help... - Posted by Guy (Illinois)

Real Estate Investing Real Estate Financing
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Posted by JT-IN on July 08, 2008 at 19:11:27:

Not an Atty nor am I familiar with IL law, so take this for what it is worth… just my opinion.

The fact that your name is on the account doesn’t or shouldn’t make ALL the funds fair game. It should be classified as a Joint Tenants account, and based on what you state, there being 3 names on the acct, they should only be entitled to 1/3rd of the account balance.

One other point, that house you were buying… that wasn’t going to happen… just as soon as the title company discovered the cert judgment against you, there would be NO loan and NO closing. So better to find out now than days before a closing.

Unfortunately, allowing things to “play out” is the worst approach when dealing with creditors. The defense is a good offense, meaning that you can often settle these things for the 1K that you refer to, but not after they discover assets or the ability to pay exists. Whether or not they learned something from the convo with your Father that day at court, who knows. Keep in mind that they are in the biz of collections, not coming to nicey-nice agreements. The coyotes are not below lying straight out to you, if they think they can collect as a result.

Also, the time to challenge these things is way before this reaches the point of a judgment. When the suit was active, you should have had an Atty file an answer (response to the suit) on your behalf. This would have potentially precluded the judgment from going into effect, and the Atty would have been able to secure an agreement for payment. (Not that this is going to change the outcome for you, but it may for someone else reeading this info).

Best thing you can do now is get an Atty working on this asap to stop the release of funds from the acct. Unfortunately the Atty will want a stiff retainer up front at this point, to enter into the shark infested waters.

Good luck on the outcome.

JT-IN

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Bank account FROZEN! Please help… - Posted by Guy (Illinois)

Posted by Guy (Illinois) on July 08, 2008 at 17:54:41:

A default judgement from a year or two ago (had to be at work on court date, union has no leniancy for tardiness) has now resulted in Resurgance Financial LLC filing a ‘garnishment’ on a shared bank account that I have with my Dad and girlfriend. I have been unemployed for 6+ months now, I thought a garnishment was only against wages? And I thought it was a fraction of income? Instead they put a ‘garnishment’ of the entire amount owed (they are claiming 12,000 when the actual credit card debt from 5+ years ago was 2,000) and now my girlfriend, my, and my fathers funds are all frozen and I’m assuming Resurgance is going to take it all. This is all taking place in Illinois.

My name was only added to this account a few months back simply to allow my unemployment direct deposit to go through and so that I would have access to it, and now they claim that since it’s a ‘joint account’ and my social number is associated with it, that everything is open game.

The representative at the bank said that I can file an ‘exemption for head of household’ to ‘remove the garnishment’ but said I’d have to contact the Sheriff Dept about that, I call them, they have no clue what I’m talking about, and it goes in a circle like this for half the afternoon.

This is pretty much my girlfriend and my life savings including the downpayment for a house we are buying next month.

This is completely ludicrous especially considering I even sent my Father on my behalf to the court date to see what he could negotiate, he met with the lawyer representing Resurgance,my Dad said he said he would settle the entire debt for 1K, the lawyer said that would ‘probably be fine’ and specifically said he’d pass it to the collections department and they would contact us in a few weeks.

We never heard anything back, until now, just kind of forgot about it. And bam, frozen our bank account and every dollar to our name. We have a 10 month old child we need diapers, food, etc and we are completely lost, devastated and stuck. Our income is all direct deposited and the bank says that Resurgance will get all of that too if we don’t get the garnishment removed.

What the heck do I do???

Thanks for your time,

Guy from IL

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P.S. Bank account FROZEN! - Posted by Dave T

Posted by Dave T on July 14, 2008 at 08:55:36:

I should have also mentioned that while the account is frozen, any checks you write against the account will bounce and you will incur the bank charges for denied checks. Not much you can do about outstanding checks, but don’t write any more until your account is unfrozen.

With regards to the amount of the claim, collection companies have been known to pad (overstate) the amount due.

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Re: Bank account FROZEN! Please help… - Posted by Dave T

Posted by Dave T on July 11, 2008 at 21:05:33:

“(they are claiming 12,000 when the actual credit card debt from 5+ years ago was 2,000)”

Don’t forget that interest still accrues as long as your account remains unpaid. The judgment creditor is entitled to the amount of the original judgment, accrued interest since the judgment was awarded, and the costs of collection.

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Re: Bank account FROZEN! Please help… - Posted by lukeNC

Posted by lukeNC on July 10, 2008 at 03:59:13:

you could have a problem here, but like everyone has stated, GET AN ATTORNEY!!

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Re: Bank account FROZEN! Please help… - Posted by Ben T

Posted by Ben T on July 08, 2008 at 20:51:51:

I agree that you should get a lawyer immediately. And while I’m not certain what the law in Illinois may state, I would think that if your girlfriend and father could prove their funds they could file a motion with the court to be excepted from the attachment.

Ben