Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: bankrupcy

If you bought out your ex before the divorce proceeding was filed, and then three years elapsed, as I understand your facts to say, then the sale of your ex's interest to you was accomplished well before the reach of any bankruptcy. I wonder if your buy-out of your husband's interest failed to reach the public record through the recording of a deed conveying his interest to you. If his name was still reflected as a record owner at the time you sold the property last month, and he thus had to cooperate with you in signing sale papers last month, it would look like a transaction involving a preference, i.e. disposition of an asset at less than fair market value and thus unfair to his creditors.

You didn't say who the attorney represents. Probably the bankruptcy trustee.

My fear is that you and he were all too informal about the buy-out three years ago, and failed to execute, notarize and record instruments to reflect the buy-out. Now you may have a tough time proving to the bankruptcy court that this deal was actually done long before the reach-back period and can't be un-done in bankruptcy proceedings.

Better dust off your recollection about how the buy-out was documented, and get set to prove to the trustee or judge that the sale of your husband's separate-property interest, or his share of the community-property interest, to you, three years ago, really happened, and that since that time he has had no interest in the house.

Paperwork is one thing, but having it duly recorded for the world to see is another, and that's what should have been done.

Finally, this is a bankruptcy law question, and if you re-ask it under that heading on LawGuru you will probably get more and better answers than can be given you by business law, family/divorce law, or real estate law attorneys.