Bankruptcy - is it a "line in the sand"

[livininma]

I've posted elsewhere on this board about my in-laws situation but is BK a line-in-the=sand kind of thing?

In other words, let's say on Oct 15th they decide to move forward. Is the snapshot of their accounts on that date? In other words, if they don't hav eto pay their mortgage can they start saving from that date forward? Or is it the "discharge" date? I'm a little confused and trying to help my in-laws understand the process they can go through (i.e. they can wipe out their debt and stay in their house for a few months to save).

Eventually my in-laws will end up in my basement, which needs to be renovated first.

[keepmine]

Have you gotten them to a lawyer yet?
They can stop paying their mortgage and cc's and everything else and start saving right then and there and not file bk for months or years or never.

The filing date is the snapshot as far as purposes of creating the bk estate as well as defining creditors whose debt will be eligible for discharge. For ex. if you file on Oct 15th and create debt on Oct 16th that creditor is post petition debt and survives discharge.

Personally, I'd suggest stop trying to get info on the net in bits and pieces and just get them to a lawyer and be done withit.

[livininma]

First lawyer appointment is tomorrow. I was wondering about savings, for example my in-laws want to live with my wife and I. However we need to renovate our basement. I am doing the work myself but it is going to cost something like $10 - $15k. They agreed to pay for it (either directly, or via "rent" payments over a period of time). I know they can't charge up an extra $15k before filing bankruptcy so I was wondering if the filing date, after that, they can use that money towards paying the basement without any issue.

[Pjmax]

The 'snapshot' is the day of filing, as Keepmine said. Any cash, savings, assets up to the filing day become part of the BK estate unless they can be exempted. What they do with their income after filing isn't a problem, but be sure and disclose EVERYTHING to the attorney, so he/she can best advise for planning purposes.