bankruptcy car exemption
Bankruptcy exemptions?
I live in Illionis which for Chapter 7 bankruptcy has a motor vehicle exemption limit of $1,200 and cannot be used in conjuction with the federal exemption. Could this be a misprint? Does this mean I would lose my $8000 car?
I am still paying for the car, but have more than $1,200 in equity
Is the car worth $8000 now or is that what you paid for it?
Also do you still owe anything on it. There are a lot of variables. I filed last year in California and our attorney who handled it answered a lot of the questions for us. That is what you pay them for. Most of the time you can also low-ball the value.
Our attorney looked up the lowest blue book and then asked if there were problems with transmission or if tires were due to be replaced etc and kept deducting values until it fit.
Also if you have an active account you don’t always have to include it in the bankruptcy. Especially if it is your only car and you need it for transportation to work/doctors, etc. My husband and I had both lost out jobs within 2 weeks of each other which prompted our bankruptcy. But my son has chronic health issues so we were able to extend what assets we kept.
Good luck.
Added noted: in reference to below, personal property. They will ask you to list the value of your wardrobe, any jewelry, appliances, electronics, furniture, even kitchenware… as to what you might get out of them if you sold them to try to pay back your debts. Fortunately they will usually go by ‘Yard Sale’ values. Just keep that in mind when you try to determine what they determine as your total value.
