Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Maryland

Re: can a creditor force your to give back furniture after a chapter 7 is discha

Since the discharge already took place, the case is closed, the automatic stay is no longer in effect and, unless your attorney failed to do something that was required, the creditor can come back and harass you again. You need to review your schedules with your attorney again to see how you dealt with the property and how you listed the creditor. Check specially, your Statement of Intent. Call if you need more info, Joe Trevino, 1800-924-6217 or 301-441-3131.

Re: can a creditor force your to give back furniture after a chapter 7 is discha

A bankruptcy discharge eliminates personal liability for your debts, but unless liens are affirmatively avoided the creditor can seek to enforce its lien, to the extent it has one, once the case is closed and the automatic stay terminated. In many cases (but not always), sellers of merchandise on credit have a purchase money security interest (lien) in the property sold, and in the case of consumer goods no public records filing is necessary to perfect that lien. But there must be a "security agreement" which sufficiently describes the goods. If they don't have a sufficient security agreement, they have no lien and they cannot do anything. If they do, they are entitled either to the goods back or to payment of the debt secured by the goods. The bankruptcy court could have valued the goods and set that amount for you to pay to redeem the goods, but it is now too late to do that. You may be able to work out a deal with the creditor to buy out their lien, though. You should have a lawyer evaluate the existence of a security agreement and work out a solution, but understand that this is not generally within the scope of what you hired and paid your bankruptcy lawyer for, so you will probably have to pay an additional fee.