Chapter 7 questions

[hrh25]

Thanks Kiddles, Thats what i thought but for some reason this one lawyer i talked to was under the impression that you can have two cars and its $2000 per car and that homestead exemption is doubled ($5000 x 2 = $10,000 )if one married regardless of if the other person is filing or not because they are still paying part of the expense etc. Confused, couldn't really find a clear answer anywhere. One other question, when calculating your income six months back, i was told you count six months back from the preivous month, ie if am filing say at end of December, i would count my income from six months from the last paycheck in November to first paycheck in June? I thought it would be from the last paycheck before filing, i get paid every two weeks so i will have two paychecks in December if i file by the end, also what about the bonus, will that not be inculding if am counting from November?

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

Regards

HRH

[kiddles]

Talk to a couple of attorneys - maybe there's some reason your state allows the exemption for the spouse, even if not filing. Who knows - stranger things have happened.

As for the 6 months - yeo, you got it right. My DH gets 3 paychecks in Nov, so we had to file in Nov so that Nov's income wouldn't be counted.

[ameliabedilia]

I have a question- if you are -$400 a month in the hole every month, how are you going to survive post bk? Especially since you say you were conservative filling out the forms. With these issues, your fresh start will not be worth anything. Is it possible that if you gave up the house and made sure you were counting every allowable expense, you would end up a little more even at the end of each month.
With the housing market like it is, I truly don't think things are going to turn around anytime soon, from the news the opposite is looking to happen. You don't get many chances to dump a house that's not worth what you paid, so I would take advantage of it now. I know you have pride of ownership, but this housing crisis is really bad right now and people need to get their heads out of the sand. Filing bk and getting rid of the house could be a real gift. Could you rent a really nice place so that you can still have enough housing expenses to make the disposable income as low as possible? You might be able to buy a house just as nice in a few years for the same price.
Also, does your wife have any debt at all? If she does, it might be worth it to include her.

[coma]

You stated in an earlier post about hiring an attorney and praying that he or she has your best interest at heart...NO attorney has YOUR best interest at heart. Sure, they have a professional responsibility to follow the law and inform you and everything, but only you have your best interest at heart. There are some unethical attorneys out there that have only the best interest of their bank accounts at heart...be aware of your choice and make the best choice for you!

[hrh25]

Thank you for your replies, I did think about letting the house go but with the income and what i would have left over it looks like its better to keep it. I know things are pretty bad and i think might get worse before they get better. I guess if i go into a five year repayment plan, which is what i would fall under i think the market would have turned around by the time i finish paying it off, so it would be like whatever i was putting into the chapter 13 i am just putting into the house. We will need to cut some stuff for a little while and hope maybe my income increases next year sometime, if not then the year after.

I didn't pay more then the house was worth but had to take out a second mortgage to get work done to the house. I had siding, windows, roof replaced, added a guest room with a bathroom and the kicthen redone. This ended up eating into everything we had and before the work was finished the contractor run off with all the money, then i came to find out the all the work he had done was not permitted, even though he had hired an architect and had plans made and everything. I would of course ask him if he had the permit and he would say yes but he forgot then in the office. I then lost my job not once but twice and could not find anything for three months each time. Then county found out we had no permit, which was news ro us and we had to pay someone else twice as much to fix everything. County said they could not help us as the contractors licence he gave us was fake and did not belong to him. Of course this ended up costing us three to four times to what it would have cost if it was done honetly the first time. So we had to get a second mortgage and make ends meet.

Anyway, i did talk to a few lawyers and with the amount of time it takes to finish a chapter 13 they said it makes more sense to just keep the house, as the market would start turning around in a another year or two. Luckly we are in an area that does recover faster because of the federal jobs etc being in this area.

Coma, i understand about the lawyers and thats the reason am trying to do as much research as possible, this forum has been of great help and am glad i found it. I will be meeting another one tomorrow and will see what he says.

Thanks everyone again for all your help.

Regards

HRH

[mongoose]