protect my business from my personal debt

[hchsal]

i owe a lot of credit card debt , all together between personal cc debt and cc debt from businesses that i owed before about $200,000 .
i am up to date on all my payments , but the problem is i can t keep up with even the minimum payments any longer , because it s more than what i m making .

my credit report doesn t show any late payments , now i got to a point where i have to stop making the payments on all my cc s all together because it s all going towards the interest and also i m sucking money out of cards to pay for others this way it kept increasing every month for the last 2 years .

i own a house worth $180,000 , i owe $175,000 on it , but it s on a rent to own contract .
i also own a car my balance on it is $26,000 and it s worth $15,000.
my only concern and my only asset that i wanna protect is my business , it s a little convinient store , limited liability corporation .
i wanna know what to do to protect my store from being taken from me , what is the best thing to do to make sure i keep it , it s my only source of income , it doesn t make much profit but it s what i need to survive .
i consider bankruptcy , i don t realy care about the house or the car , i only care about keeping my store somehow .

[lrprn]

Welcome to BK Forum, hchsal - glad you found us.

With a business involved that you hope to keep, filing bankruptcy in your situation is not a simple, no asset case. You need expert legal advice from bankruptcy lawyers who are experienced with helping clients who are business owners like yourself.

Start by making appointments for free or low-cost initial consultations with 3-4 bankruptcy lawyers in your area. Lay out your circumstances and see what the lawyers have to say. You'll learn a lot about what will be possible in your case.

We do have several business owners currently active here in the forum - hopefully one of them will see your thread and respond.

Hang in there and keep asking questions - we'll help you sort things out as best we can.

[fast girl]

hchsal,

I know exactly how you feel !!! Your situation is alot like mine. We have several businesses in LLC's. I have one business that has sucked all of our cash-flow, we have used up most all of our equity in our home, vehicles and equipment.
Yours might be as simple as filing a 13 so you can restructure your payments and terms. Just make sure you keep up on your taxes for the business and try to keep your venders current.
Get a hold of an attourney that specializes in "business bankrupsy". It will be worth it. I hope this works for you, keep your chin up and don't let it get to you, owning a business is not as easy as people think. What state are you in?

Fast Girl

[fast girl]

I just saw that your in Missouri.

[hchsal]

hchsal,

I know exactly how you feel !!! Your situation is alot like mine. We have several businesses in LLC's. I have one business that has sucked all of our cash-flow, we have used up most all of our equity in our home, vehicles and equipment.
Yours might be as simple as filing a 13 so you can restructure your payments and terms. Just make sure you keep up on your taxes for the business and try to keep your venders current.
Get a hold of an attourney that specializes in "business bankrupsy". It will be worth it. I hope this works for you, keep your chin up and don't let it get to you, owning a business is not as easy as people think. What state are you in?

Fast Girl

i am in the state of missouri .

[HHM]

Generally, when a person files a personal BK 7, the trustee does not go after a business that is the person's livelyhood. First, if the business is incorporated, then its a seperate entity and therefore the trustee cannot access the business assets directly. What can be at risk is your ownership interest (i.e. you membership interest in the LLC). But keep in mind, that the trustee can only sell "that interest" and since there really is no market for these types of securities, its a moot point for the trustee. Also, if the articles of Inc. and the and bylaws are set up properly, you can have the membership interest vest back to the corporation when an owner declares BK (but that is something you would have had to have set up already). The trustee "usually" does not take-over your business if its a seperate legal entity, but the code does provide such an option if the court deems it necessary (section 721) but that authorization can only be for a "limited time" and only if there is some benefit to the BK estate (which their usually is not), but alot of what can or might happen depends on the nature of the busienss.

[hchsal]

Generally, when a person files a personal BK 7, the trustee does not go after a business that is the person's livelyhood. First, if the business is incorporated, then its a seperate entity and therefore the trustee cannot access the business assets directly. What can be at risk is your ownership interest (i.e. you membership interest in the LLC). But keep in mind, that the trustee can only sell "that interest" and since there really is no market for these types of securities, its a moot point for the trustee. Also, if the articles of Inc. and the and bylaws are set up properly, you can have the membership interest vest back to the corporation when an owner declares BK (but that is something you would have had to have set up already). The trustee "usually" does not take-over your business if its a seperate legal entity, but the code does provide such an option if the court deems it necessary (section 721) but that authorization can only be for a "limited time" and only if there is some benefit to the BK estate (which their usually is not), but alot of what can or might happen depends on the nature of the busienss.

then let me ask you , what is it that i can change that would help as separate me from the corporation.
for example if i put someone else s name as the ceo in the article of the corporation and put myself as a secetary would that help.