Georgia Bankruptcy Laws and Georgia Bankruptcy Attorney

What Can I Keep?

If there is no equity in your house (today's value less costs of sale less payoff balances on all liens and mortgages), the trustee in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will abandon the house to you. That is, you keep it, as long as you keep the mortgages current.

The Georgia Bankruptcy Attorney does not wipe out voluntary liens, like mortgages and deeds of trust, or tax liens. So the lender still has the right to foreclose if you do not pay. If you pay, everyone is happy. Remember, the lender does not want the property; it wants you to pay regularly on the loan. Foreclosure is a last resort for the lender if it concludes it can't get the owed money any other way.

If there is less than $5,000 in equity in your house, you can claim a "homestead exemption" and keep the house, as long as you pay the mortgages. If there is more than $5,000 in equity, it is possible you could lose your home. In that case, you may wish to consider a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

If there is no equity in your car, after subtracting any car loans and exemption from the car's present value, the bankruptcy trustee will not take the car.

If there is more than $3,500 equity in your car, you may be able to pay the difference between the value of the car and the $3,500 equity allowed to the Chapter 7 trustee and keep the car.

If you still owe money on the car, you can choose to reaffirm the debt to the secured lender of Georgia Bankruptcy Attorney. Under the new law, you have to reaffirm your car loan within 45 days after the "341 meeting." You no longer have the option of continuing your car payments without reaffirming the loan. Once the loan is reaffirmed, if you default on your payments and the car is repossessed, you are liable for the repossession deficiency.

You also have the option to redeem the car within 45 days of the "341 meeting" by buying it from the secured creditor in a single payment for its present value.

Under Georgia Bankruptcy Attorney, you can keep:

• Your interest in real or personal property that you or your dependents use as a residence, or in a cooperative that owns property that you or your dependents use as a residence, or a burial plot, up to $10,000 in value ($20,000 if you are married and you and your spouse jointly file for bankruptcy), but only if you don't claim the homestead exemption
• Household furnishings and goods, clothes, appliances, books, animals, crops, and musical instruments, up to $300 in value per item, but not to exceed $5,000 in total value
• Jewelry, up to $500 in total value
• Any professionally prescribed health aids
• Social security, unemployment compensation or local public assistance benefits
• Veterans' benefits
• Disability, illness or unemployment benefits
• Alimony, support or separate maintenance as needed for support
• Pensions and individual retirement accounts
• Professional books and tools of your trade, up to $1,500 in value
• Crime victims' compensation
• Payment for personal injuries (not including pain and suffering or compensation for actual pecuniary loss), up to $10,000
• Payment for compensation for loss of future earnings as needed for support
• Payment for the wrongful death of a person you were dependent upon as needed for support
• Payment under a life insurance contract on the life of a person you were dependent upon as needed for support
• Any unmatured life insurance contract except a credit life insurance contract
• Your aggregate interest in the loan value on any unmatured insurance contract, up to $2,000
• Your aggregate interest, up to $600 in value in any property, plus any unused portion of the homestead exemption to a maximum of $5,000