Can I get some advice on this?

[Lorah93]

My husband and I have been paying on a Chapter13 since April. The lawyer talked us into 13 to keep 2 vehicles. We gave up the old farm house anyway since the upkeep was eating us alive. Our 98 Yukon has 185,000 miles on it, our 94 Olds has a 130,00 on it. Since we have no property and our debts are over 70,000.00 does it make sense to stay in a 13? I am ill and cannot work and our yearly income is 50,000. Can we convert to a Chapter 7. Would it make more sense? except for the two vehicles, everything else is unsecured credit cards and medical bills. Thanks for any advice.

[SinkingFast]

You need to check out your vehicles values and your State's vehicle exemptions statute. Keeping 2 cars if you're filing joint shouldn't be a problem of number. It might be a value issue, tho.

You're Old Law so you won't have to worry about Median Income or the Means Test.

But if that's all you got left, I wouldn't even worry about it. Our attny said old, high mileage vehicles are not appealing to the Trustees. They don't bring much at sale. Plus the Trustee has costs to sell the vehicles, and they don't bring top dollar in a quick sale either.

More than likely, if you're just a tad over your exemption limit in value, and the Trustee isn't a real butt, he/she will just abandon the vehicles anyway. If you have more value, the Trustee will probably broker a deal with you. Let you "redeem" your equity for a negotiated amount. Say you have $2000 in equity you can't cover, the Trustee might say, "Gimme $1000 and we'll call it even."

There's loads of possibilities. Conversion is definitely an option to discuss with your attny.