Homestead exemption? Vehicles? Help!

[mitchefx]

We are going to be filing a Ch7 in AZ. I live with the kids in a rented mobile home. We own a piece of property 45 minutes out of town that we are building a house on. My husband lives there in a travel trailer so he can work on the house. We have a separate mailing address out there, but no utilities. He has been doing this for almost a year now. Can we claim this as our homestead exemption even though I rent a place in town? The house is in construction so there really is no way to have it appraised. We do have homeowners/construction insurance on the house. We are making payments on the property.

Also, we own four or five vehicles that are in various stages of disrepair. What kind of value do we assign them? ie. 1982 Ford Bronco with no transmission, all the interior removed and in pieces in the back. I'm not even sure we could sell them if we tried. Will the trustee see that as something to be liquidated?

I posted on another board also, but did some more reading and thought this might be a better place for my questions. Thanks for any insight!

[AngelinaCat]

Hi mitchefx: welcome to the forum. To determine the homestead status on the home you are building, you need to talk to your tax assesor's and property appraiser's office. I am not familiar with the AZ regulations for homestead, but in Florida, you need to have lived in your home for six months before you can claim Homestead exemption, and you have to fill out an application for it. It is renewed every year. In Florida, after you have lived there a certain number of years, then the renewal is automatic. So based on that, I don't know if you can claim the Homestead for BK purposes. Without being able to produce utility bills with the 911 address, this could be difficult to do. This would be a good question to ask when you do your initial consults with two or three attorneys.

On the vehicles, especially the one with no transmission: list them in your paperwork, but give condition and value which is basically whatever your local salvage yard might pay. We have signs around here that say: "We will buy your old junker for $200.00". The trustee is not going to be bothered with anything that he cannot sell to benefit the BK estate. He will more than likely end up filing a motion with the court to 'Abandon Interest' in them.

Good luck!