Sometimes debtors do sneaky things like conveying real estate out of their names to try to put those assets out of the reach of their creditors. Fortunately, New Jersey has a Fraudulent Transfer Act that gives creditors some recourse. The Act grants a creditor a period of four years after the transfer to sue the debtor, or within one year of discovering the transfer, whatever is later.
In 2014, our truck driver client “Danny” was involved in a collision which caused personal injuries and collision damage to another driver and her vehicle. At that time, he reported the accident to the lessee company to which he had leased the vehicle for commercial hauling purposes. Unfortunately, without counsel, Danny was unable to confirm coverage for the accident, although he was being charged for insurance consistently. He also had his own “bobtail” coverage for his tractor so long as it was not pulling a trailer (and therefore not available as coverage for this particular accident). Danny’s troubles were exacerbated by the fact that he is an immigrant with limited English communication skills.
Most real estate transactions proceed smoothly to closing. However, occasionally a buyer or seller may attempt to back out of the deal without just cause. For example, a seller may get emotional and not want to leave his long time residence. Or a buyer may decide that she is paying too much for the house and try to walk away from the contract. In such cases, the party wishing the transaction to proceed must be ready, willing and able to close, and first invoke time of the essence (https://www.middlesexcountynjrealestateattorney.com/time-of-the-essence/). If the other party fails to close on the time of the essence date, then the non-breaching party may file a lawsuit against the other party for damages. If the lawsuit is against the buyer, and there is a contract deposit, then the deposit will be held pending the outcome of the lawsuit to be used to compensate the seller if the seller prevails in the case.
Can you keep your life insurance policy if you file a New Jersey consumer bankruptcy? That depends in part on what kind of life insurance policy you have. A term insurance policy, in which you pay a periodic premium in exchange for a death benefit, is unaffected by the United States Bankruptcy Code.
