Confused by choices..

[broderp]

I make just under $44500.00 a year, pay out $570 in child support a month (or $7384 a year) have a $760 morgage every month, $130 insurance every month (Own both my cars, newest being a 96 Town and country minivan) and am raising 3 children in my home (my children) as well as the usual monthly bills, utilities, cable TV, internet, FOOD clothes etc......

I also have nearly 25K in CC debt.

I can no longer afford the debt and am considering BK, but don't know which to file. I want to keep the house and would gladdly affirm it, but I can not maintain the other debts and take care of my kids.

WHich way to file? DO I qualify for 7 or must I do 13?

[anonymuse]

Sounds like Ch 7 may be very possible.

Your income must be below the median income for your state seeing that you have 3 children. And it would be hard to imagine having much disposable income after the monthly expenses are paid.

Where do you live?
How much equity do you have in your house?

[SinkingFast]

What State do you live in? That will help us help you.

Are you current on your mortgage payments? And what's the current market value and mortgage balance?

If you're not current on your mortgage, you cannot file Ch 7 and keep your home. You would have to go Ch 13.

Age, model, mileage, etc of the vehicles.

It sounds like private info, but necessary for us to help you in much of any way.

[broderp]

I live in Ohio.

My home is worth approx 120K
I owe about 95K on home.
I am current.


My cars:
89 Toyota MR2 (92K miles) (being restored, not running)
95 Toyota Celica GT (120K miles)
96 Chrysler Town & Country with about 156K miles.

I just missed my first payment ever in may for my water bill and 1 Credit Card because I ran out of funds and can no longer borrow from peter (and still pay him) to pay for Paul. (CC money)

I've been all over trying to get an equity loan to pay off these bills at a substantially less rate, but of course after the intitial "your pre-quilified" here are our "offers" they say I owe too much! But thats another topic!

ALSO..I live with my girlfriend, and the children are ours. Where does her income come into play? She is also on the deed to the house, but nothing else. She filed BK about 8 months ago, took a pay cut and is working fewer hours. She makes about 25k a year, but has her own bills to pay. (our finances, with the exception of the house have always been separate.) She also has a child, not mine, so there are 4 in all, but I cant claim the one.

[SinkingFast]

Here's a link to a website about Ohio BK Exemptions:

http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/OH_exemp.htm

Let's just say your valuation of your home is correct,......... It costs, on average about 10% to sell. Realtor fees, property taxes that have to given to the buyer, maybe a home warranty plan, etc. That brings your value down to $108K. You owe $95K, leaving $13K to be split between you and your SO. Your portion of the equity is $7500. Still well in excess of the $5K allowed for a Homestead Exemption.

Only $1K for motor vehicle. If the statute does not read, "a motor vehicle", you could have as many as you want, but cannot exceed $1K total in value. The minivan alone will be more than your vehicle exemption allowable.

Basically, if you wanted to file for Ch 7 and keep all the cars and your house, you'd probably have to negotiate some sort of "settlement" on the differences between the actual values of your property/assets with the Trustee.

Let's just say, for example purposes, your home and cars exceed your exemptions allowed by $10K,.......... Instead of siezing your property and selling it quick sale to the highest bidder,........ The Trustee might settle with you for, oh say, $5000 cash. You pay $5000 cash and you get to keep everything you own. Money you probably do not have and would have to go to family and friends to get. The Trustee does not really care how you come up with the money. Just that you get it without incurring new "reportable" debt.

Sad to say, but that's how BK works a lot of times. The Trustee knows they can take your stuff if they want. They know roughly how much your things will bring, quick sale price. They know how much it's gonna cost them to sell. They also know that many people really, really WANT to keep their homes and/or cars. So Trustees make cash settlement offers all the time.

Since you and your SO are not married and do not have intermingled finances, your SO probably won't enter into the picture at all. Your attny may start with her income included in your petition, but since she's not filing, it can be taken out later. You'll need to go thru and figure out who pays for what, utilities/food/clothes wise, for your list of expenses.

Just a tip here, but you really need to take care of getting current with the water company before you file. People who file against utilities wind up having to pay HUGE deposits down the road to get new service when they move or change utility companies.

Call and make some appts with attnys for Consults. Generally, Consults are free. Attnys know what the Trustees in your Court will and will not do.