My question involves bankruptcy in the state of: Michigan
My husband and I filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the end of Feb this year (2008). Our meeting of creditors was April 1st, all went well and our bankruptcy is now complete. We had a secured debt for a Rainbow Vacuum that we did not reaffirm and chose to surrender. On the late afternoon of July 9th I spoke with the creditor on the phone and they asked me to find boxes to package the vacuum in and then they would send UPS to pick it up. I couldn't find boxes that would fit the vacuum (it is quite large and has a lot of hoses and attachments), so I decided I would contact the creditor the next day after making a few more calls to try and get bigger boxes and ask them if they could just ship boxes for me to package it in. Our lawyer has since informed me that I should not have to go to any effort for them to repo it. Anyway, on July 10th around noon I received a call from my mother-in-law on my cell phone. She said that a UPS man was at her door telling her he was there to repossess a vacuum!She informed him that she had no vacuum with a lien on it and didn't know what he was refering to. He showed her the paperwork and it had our names on it of course. She called us to see what was going on. My in-laws have no clue we declared bankruptcy and it is none of their business. We have no idea how the creditor got their address in the first place and how they ever mistaked it for ours - I don't believe we put them down for a reference on the loan, but even if we did they moved since we established the loan! So at this point we were LIVID because we had to make up some story to my in-laws about the vacuum. We called the creditor that evening and told them that they sent the UPS guy to the wrong address and that we are very upset because now other people know our financial business. The Customer service rep said, "Oh, but that is the address we have on file for you" and my husband told her that that is not the correct address. She asked for the address and my husband told her that she should have it since it is on all the paperwork we signed for the vacuum in the first place! He told her that she is more than welcome to make arrangements to either pick up the vacuum or to send packaging material and pay shipping costs.
SO now it is the middle of August and we have heard nothing back from the creditor at all. We would like to get rid of the vacuum since we really don't like it and don't have room for it, but I don't want to get into trouble. How long do I have to keep it? There is no "title" or anything that would state that there is a lien on it, so it's not like it would be hard to get rid of it. Is there some type of Statute of Limitations on the time they have to claim the vacuum? What happens if we get rid of it and they later try to get it back?
Secondly, is there any type of legal responsibility or liability that the creditor has for contacting my in-laws?

