What Happens To My Property When I Go To Prison?
If you go to prison, your rights are either taken away or severely limited in some manner. The most pertinent right is the ability to freely access your bank account and manage the assets that you might have. The state may seize your assets as part of the evidence that is believed to link to the misdemeanor you committed. However, nothing will happen to other assets, money, and property you own upon being sentenced.
Certainly, an often unforeseen downside of being arrested and sent behind bars is that you are still on the hook for all the financial obligations you committed before. For instance, you will be accountable for your bills, course debts, and rent. However, at this point, you are likely not in a position to make any significant amount of funds to pay your pending bills.
What Happens to the Finances When You Go to Prison?
Suppose the state sends you behind bars. Nothing is going to happen to your finances. However, you will still be in contact with certain subscriptions that will vacuum funds from your account every month. The government will freeze all your accounts if the crime you committed is considered to benefit you financially. For these reasons and others, many attorneys strongly advise getting your financial life together.
Before going to jail, get a reliable person that you can trust your life with. You can make them power of attorney for your financial accounts before any potential prison sentence to avoid unnecessary loss of funds. If you delay, you might probably leave prison in the worst financial situation. However, this could be challenging for those suddenly arrested before they post bail to have an interim period to get everything in order.
While it is possible to settle and give someone else control of your financial assets, such as a loved one, attorney, or financial expert, each option has pros and cons. For instance, transferring the control of your financial assets to loved ones usually intentionally leaves them with the capability to do anything they want with your assets.
However, it is possible to limit the access of a certain individual from accessing your assets, but this might also prove to be a problem if you only permit them to withdraw a certain amount of money. There is a bill that exceeds the initial amount you need to pay. Naturally, inmates are powerless and cannot do anything about it.
What Happens to Your Assets If You Go to Jail?
In the United States, most statutory penalties for crimes are phrased as a combination of monetary fines and prison time. The only assets the government can touch are ones that were associated with the crime itself. This happens especially in drug-related cases a lot.
Assets that survive this fleecing process would typically be placed in an account under custodial stewardship. You may need the power of your attorney to make sure that your income taxes and evaluated withholding tax payments are filed on time.
The federal bureau of prisons in the United States allows offenders to execute powers of attorney in the interest of protecting their legitimate assets. However, once they are behind bars, they are not allowed to facilitate paying their bills. That is left to be handled and scheduled outside by the person the inmate entrusted as an attorney.
What Happens to Your Bills and Debts If You Go to Jail?
You should settle your debts and get rid of any pilling bills you have before going to prison. When entering prison, the lenders you owe money will still demand you to pay them if you have outstanding debts. They will also ask for the money from your guarantors until you agree to pay the debt.
Do not ignore your debts while serving your sentence. Unpaid old debts will often show up on your credit report at the time of your release. Not only will it affect your challenges of rehabilitation through re-entry programs, but it negatively affects your credit score.
Your bills will remain due and payable. If you don’t call off your utility subscriptions and terminate using your credit cards, the charges will continue to accrue despite whether you have a clue or not. You will realize this after walking out of the prison gates without funds and immense amounts of debts.
Some creditors will petition to have you paid your debt directly taken from your account without your consent. That is because some inmates might not intend to pay their debts considering the current state they are in.
What Transpires to Your Credit Score When You Go to Prison?
Your stay at the correctional facility might not show up on your credit report. Nevertheless, if you continue ignoring the factors that give rise to your credit score, it will completely be pulled down while you are behind bars.
Your credit payment history is essential for your financial health. Before going to prison, you need to set up a joint bank account with someone you trust, like a family member, attorney, or friend. They will help you maintain your credit score by making minimum payments while you are behind bars.
If you can’t manage the payments, there is nothing you can do about it. Delinquent loans might reflect after years of default payments, and your account might undergo foreclosure. You might end up losing benefits associated with credit cards. However, don’t expect your score to change in the due process of renewing your card.
What Happens to Funds Benefitted from a Crime When You Go to Prison?
If your bank account has been frozen, the bank has no problem unfreezing it provided you go through the required hoops. Suppose by any chance the authorities believe you benefited financially in some way from the crimes you are accused of. In that case, the government has broad authority to seize and distribute the assets to worth courses like:
- Charities
- Fund community projects in areas where the money was seized
- Fund those affected by the crime as a form of compensation.
- For the most part, the assets are sold and added along with the money given to the government to fight crime.
What Happens to Someone’s House When They Go to Prison?
If you go behind bars, it does not mean you are going to lose your house. You might consider leaving the house to a member of your family, relative, or friend. If that is not the case, there are ways to keep your home safe while in prison.
The arresting agency might come in to take custody of your house for safekeeping. They will hold it until you get out, but this depends on the prevailing circumstances and your ability to pay the housing bills while in prison. However, allowing the prison to keep your house might not be the best option, especially if you might end up in debt at the time of release.
If you terminate the house or apartment lease payments and pay for the penalties agreed, you will be homeless at the time of your release. You won’t go back to the former house, but you will have to look for alternative housing or stay with your family or friend before re-integrating back into society. It is advisable to sort out your house bills before going to prison, if possible while incarcerated too.
What Happens If Somebody Dies While They’re in Prison?
They remain the property owner, including the assets, house, and money, until they die. The prison will most likely grant the person a will if they see the person’s health deteriorating. However, if the prisoner dies in prison with no wife or children, the government might pass the property to their closest living relative.
When someone dies before writing a will, their death is considered intestate. The DOC officials typically exclude the cause of the death.
Each state’s jurisdiction has its own rules and protocols regarding intestacy asset distribution. The prison will notify the designated contact or next of kin to the deceased.
Suppose the person that dies intestate is married and having a family the money will be distributed among children, descendants, and the spouse based upon the state law. The spouse will receive a preferential amount.
When the people die intestate without heirs, the state calls the property escheat. However, if there is no designated spouse, children, and descendants, the state’s intestacy law dictates the property to be distributed to the closest living relative.
If the person who dies intestate was married by common-law, the spouse might apply for assets if they have lived with the deceased for some years or longer.
Conclusion
If you are apprehended for a felony, your accounts, assets, and other belongings are frozen by the state. The state might give you a gap period between sentencing and date of appearance at the jail designed to allow you to put your affairs in order. That is because while in prison, there is no guarantee of any access to financial news nor of timely correspondence with those authorized to manage your portfolio on your behalf.
The authorities might unfreeze your property so long you go through the required steps. However, the state might take longer to unfreeze your financial accounts. Therefore, you should always follow the attorney’s advice by making nominal payments into a specific account while in a correctional facility to avoid this.
