Hazel Crest Bankruptcy Attorney Depicts What Assets Can Be Saved Whe...

Generally speaking, a debtor can keep $8,000.00 worth of personal property, $4,800.00 worth of motor vehicle equity for a joint case, and $30,000.00 worth of home equity in a joint case.  As a practical matter, these numbers have to be discussed with your attorney, because depending on the aggressiveness of the trustee, the value of the collateral and a variety of other things, they do change a little bit.  For example, let’s say a debtor has a house worth $300,000.00 and he owes $250,000.00 on it.  With the exemption of $30,000.00 applied to it, assuming the debtors are joint (husband and wife), that would leave $280,000.00 exempt with $20,000.00 in net equity.  Once you take out cost to sale and administration, though, there is as a practical matter no money left over for creditors, so they would be able to keep that, as well.  Asset considerations are one of the things every attorney is trained to look for.  It is a case by case situation.  Trustees can also make claims to property; however, in practical terms, when it comes to personal affects, belongings, home, cars, most people in most Chapter 7 cases will get to keep them.  In Chapter 13 cases, you get to keep all your assets, but if there’s a significant number of assets that have value, that may increase or drive the repayment in order to protect creditors.