From the Editor’s Desk – Property of Estate and Exemptions • NACTT Academy

From the Editor’s Desk – Property of Estate and Exemptions

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Chapter 7 trustee’s authority to sell residence. A debtor’s residence, in which there was no equity above the first mortgage, remained property of the estate, notwithstanding the debtor’s reservation of $60,000 homestead exemption, which was subordinate to the first lien. The reserved exemption did not prevent the trustee’s sale of the residence, with the mortgage lien attaching to proceeds. Applying Schwab v. Reilly and North Carolina’s homestead, the residence was not subject to an in-kind or unlimited exemption, and unless . . .

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