My mother in a nursing home, age 92 soon to be 93 bought a 5th wheel trailer to live in;however after 4 years she became quite ill and had to move into our home and after 2 years it was necessary to move her to assisted living. We tried to sell trailer but to no avail and consequently turned the trailer back to the bank.

I had a call last night from a collection agency advising me they were going to place a judgment on my mother's checking account. I feel her funds are exempt i.e. social security; my fathers disability and a small retirement account from my father.

My question is are these items exempt?

Thanks

Pat Koch

They would first need to obtain a judgement in order to garnish anything if your state even allows it. What state are you in? When the vehicle was sold at auction, was there a deficiency balance? When were you notified? Depending on your state, the repo may be covered under the UCC SOL of 4 years. The 4 years starts when a deficiency balance is realized.

You must notified the bank and the court if it gets that far about the following.

For your information about Social Security Benefits, print this out and take it to the bank and court.


Safe from Garnishment



Federal law makes Social Security benefits exempt from levy, garnishment, and assignment- 42 USC 407(a) states. "In general the right of any future payments under this sub chapter SHALL NOT be Transferable or assignable. AND NONE of the moneys paid or payable or rights existing under this subchapter shall be subject to execution, levey, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process, or to the operation of any bankruptcy or insolvency law".

This means that even if a creditor or debt attorney, collection agency has a judgement against you they CAN NOT garnish your SS payments nor can they take the money from you after it has been paid to you; for example, the portion of your bank account that is attributable to your SS benefits is EXEMPT from LEVY OR ATTACHMENT