I enjoyed how this judge put it — The concept that the filing of a petition for relief severs a joint tenancy is evidently from the fantasy world of make believe or born as a result of wishful thinking. It is just not true. The debtor does not transfer his title to 541 property of the estate but holds his title subject to the exercise by the trustee of [the trustee’s] rights to sell, use or lease such property by appropriation under the “avoidance” or “strong arm” sections as typified by Sections 542, 543, 544, 545, 546 and 547 of the 1978 Act, as amended. . . . The trustee has no title to property of the estate until he elects to take affirmative action and proceedings are had or orders made. See Whittington v. Gilbralter Sav. & Loan Assoc. (In re Spain), 55 B.R. 849, 854 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. 1985).

As for this Circuit, I’ve found cases that appear to same the same and the opposite.

Around Fall of 2007, Pres. Obama’s administration came out with a program that allowed some students to have their loans forgiven if they worked for a “public service jobs” for 10 years.   Ten years later, these students who worked for 10 years at low paying jobs — are having their applications for loan forgiveness denied because the “public service job” they were doing for 10 years was not a “public service job” in the eyes of the Dept. of Education anymore.

Of 20,521 applications for loan forgiveness — only 96 borrowers were approved.  That is less than 1% !

The definition of “public service job” had changed throughout the year and the servicers misled borrowers by saying mischievously, “oh absolutely, you still qualify….keep paying that loan.”  I feel bad for these people — hopefully Congress fixes this (not holding my breathe).

Can you imagine after 10 years of working — you are told, “sorry, you don’t qualify but thank you for your service.  Next in line!”  That’s a bunch of crock and makes me so angry.

The original article by legal contributor Alan White on CreditClips can be found here.