Expert: Terry Leeders - 9/6/2007

Question
Does the debtor have an obligation to describe an exempt homestead property that consists of 4 contiguous parcels of land accessed by the same street address by 4 separate legal descriptions?  Or is it enough to list the property as "1234 Avenue A" on the inventory?

In our case, 3 portions of the homestead were foreclosed upon by the 1st lien holder, but a 4th portion was not subject to any liens.  In subsequent litigation, it is being claimed that our "failure to disclose" the 4th portion in the bankruptcy inventory results in the trustee being the owner of the property.

I am an attorney, but do not practice bankruptcy law.  I could really use a cite to either a case or a practice manual that defines what constitutes an adequate disclosure of real property.

Answer
Sorry, I don't have a cite for you, but if there are 4 titles, then all 4 should be listed on schedule A, and the respective liens on schedule D.  Cases in Illinois have applied homestead to actual houses, so the exemption would have to be used correctly, and then, in your case, any unencumbered, non-homestead parcel would be an asset of the bankruptcy estate, and subject to liquidation by the trustee.