Question: I recently was discharged from bankruptcy and now a computer company has informed me that I still owe them money for the computer that I bought from them prior to my bankruptcy in Ontario and that they were never informed by my trustee that I was bankrupt…..they claim that because I didn’t voluntarily surrender the computer that I still have to pay even though they were on my list of debts included in the discharge. This is the first time I have filed for bankruptcy and I did everything that was required of my by the trustee …..since the computer company NEVER contacted me or the trustee during my bankruptcy ….. even though they have not received any payment during that time….am I free of them or are they correct in saying I owe still?
Answer: The debt to the computer company was probably discharged in your bankruptcy. There are two types of creditors: secured and unsecured. A debt to a secured creditor is not automatically discharged in a bankruptcy. For example, if you have a car loan, the car loan is not eliminated just because you went bankrupt. If the computer company registered a lien on your computer prior to the bankruptcy, they would be a secured creditor, and would therefore not be discharged in a bankruptcy.
However, in most cases in Ontario, computer companies do not register liens on computers they sell, since there would be no point in repossessing a two or three year old computer; they could never resell it, so there would be no point in seizing it.
We suggest you contact your trustee to confirm that the creditor was not a secured creditor, and request that the notice of your bankruptcy be resent to that company so that they will stop bothering you.