Buying A Car Before Filing?

[Deborah]

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What are the rules for buying a car before filing for bankruptcy. Live in Florida know they only allow $1000.00 exemption. If you pay more do you have to give back the difference. What happens if you give a down payment of over a thousand on a newer car? Rules on vehicles are confusing.

[Graphic]

Don't quote me on this.. but this is what I recall two attorneys here in Fort Myers telling me...

I have a car worth 9k .. paid for.. if I filed I would ahve to at least give the trustee the difference of that (assets).. So as long as you don't have any equity in the car worth more than 1k then you are ok.

Not sure how they would look at a car being bought just before filing... but if you get approved and make the payments on time then maybe they will approve it. Not sure I just know you shouldn't have any equity in it because floridas car exemption sucks! (Not sure about the wild card stuff don't know how all that works)

[Minnymouth]

If you buy a new car right before filing BK the court will look at it as way of tying your money up in new car payments instead of paying your creditors....
Especially when a used vehicle was what you could really afford.....

Now if several month (6) had gone by then the Trustee might not object......

Touchy situation there.....

[babycakes]

I bought a new car in April, filed in July, discharged in Nov. I knew I would get a better rate pre-bk and didn't think my old car would last for another 7-10 years, so I got a new one. No one said anything to me about it.

[Minnymouth]

Evidently you were just under the wire on the 60-90 days before filing........
The fact that you probably had no equity in the auto also helped and did not raise an objection from the Trustee.

So you did fine.................. and evidently you did not buy a "real expensive" auto either or the red flag would have went up for the Trustee..

You will be okay with it,