"tenancy by the entirety" to protect property

by Frank
(lexington, NC)

I have been served a civil summons for a debit. The summons does NOT have a court date, only an answer sheet. I have 30 days to respond to the summons with my answers, If I fail to do so then thay will apply to the court for relief (a judgement).

My question is, since they have not applied to the court for relief yet (have not applied for a judgement yet), do I still have time to protect my real property via "tenancy by the entirety" ?

My state is NC and they have Tenancy by the entirety laws. However im unsure if it is too late to do so.

And I have a follow up question: If I answer the summons, and me and the creditor reach a payment arangement, what happends with the civil summons? Would the civil summons be droped, or would it carry over until the debit is paid in full?

thanks for your time!

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Sep 26, 2011
 "tenancy by the entirety" to protect property
by: Debtcollectionanswers.com.

I am not an attorney, but it's my understanding that you cannot retitle property or transfer property into someone else's name in order to avoid losing it in a lawsuit once you have been sued. It's also my understanding that if you do and lose the lawsuit and if the creditor that sued you learns about what you did, the court would probably undo your action.

It's possible however that the asset you are concerned about is exempt in your state, which means that if there is a judgment against you, the judgment creditor could not go after that asset to collect on the amount of the judgment. In other words, because it was exempt, it would be protected from your creditors.

If you want a definitive answer on both of these issues, I recommend you speak with a consumer law attorney who helps consumers resolve debt collection issues.

As for the matter of what will happen if you and the creditor are able to resolve your dispute outside of court, the lawsuit would end and you would not risk having a judgment against you. However, if you did not live up to the terms of your agreement with the creditor, you would probably be sued again and I doubt that the creditor would be willing to settle with you out of court again.

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