BankruptPinoy
11-08-2008, 02:56 PM
Hi. I don't know if this is the correct forum or not to inquire about this.
If and when a judgement by Bank of America is made against me for a credit card bill, would this judgement apply to my 1999 Honda valued at $2460, which is my only property that I own, or would it only be applied to wages?
Thanks.
BankruptPinoy
11-08-2008, 03:14 PM
Ok, I don't see where I can delete this question.
I did find this:
http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=28860&highlight=judgement+vehicle
I live in Georgia and the exemption regarding bankruptcies seems to be:
Motor vehicles to $3,500
44-13-100(a)(3)
Any asset that has sufficient equity can be seized to satisfy a judgment. If a lien holder is present then they must be paid off in full in order to seize the asset. So the short answer is..it depends.
The long answer is, if you own the car free and clear then yes they can take it, but state exemptions come in to play. This is where if you own (even if the other car is not paid for) more than one car you can run into exemption problems.
Does this really occur someone taking a car to pay for credit card debt? Well, yes and no. No, not generally to the average Joe. But if you own a very valuable car (example a collector car) and they can be assured that by taking it it will cover all the costs and fees to sell and seize etc. then yes you are very likely to lose it. Same really goes for boats, planes, RV's, jewelry etc.
But if you fall into the class that really need to worry about this you need to talk to an attorney to work with you.
Most of the time once the state exemption is taken the amount left for the car is not enough to warrant the costs.