New Hampshire Bankruptcy Laws and New Hampshire Bankruptcy Attorney

What Can I Keep?

Under New Hampshire bankruptcy law, you may keep:

• Homestead or mobile home to $100,000
• Clothing for yourself and your family
• Beds and bedding for yourself and your family
• Household furniture to $3,500
• One cooking stove, one heating stove, one refrigerator and utensils
• One sewing machine
• Provisions and fuel to $400
• Military uniform, arms and equipment
• Bibles, school books and library to $800
• Tools of your occupation to $5,000
• One hog, one pig, six sheep and their fleece
• Domestic fowls to $300
• One cow, yoke of oxen or a horse if required for farming or teaming purposes and up to four tons of hay
• One pew in place of worship
• One burial lot
• One automobile to $4,000
• Jewelry to $500
• Any property to $1,000 plus up to $7,000 in any unused exemption amounts from furniture, fuel, books, tools of occupation, automobiles and jewelry
• Retirement plans
• Wages
• Pension or bounty money
• New Hampshire Retirement System benefits
• Child support
• Public assistance to blind, aged, disabled and dependent children
• Workers compensation
• Unemployment compensation
• Life insurance payable to a married woman
• Life insurance payable to a third person
• Jury and witness fees
• Insurance proceeds or damages recovered for exempt property to $5,000

The New Hampshire bankruptcy law 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 you still owe money on the car, you can choose to reaffirm the debt to the secured lender. 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.

New Hampshire Bankruptcy Law

On April 20, 2005, the President signed into law the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which limits individual access to US bankruptcy courts. Some of the effective changes include:

• New bans on Chapter 7
• Increased Chapter 13 payments
• New presumptions against debtors with increased penalties
• The reduction of judicial discretion to balance competing interests
• The time between subsequent discharges is expanded

The new bankruptcy laws are effective October 17, 2005, but several changes to the Bankruptcy Code that are contained in the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act are effective either upon enactment or are retroactively effective.

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