This is Roger Ghai and I wanted to talk about filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the ability to keep your home. A lot of clients will call me up and their primary concern of course, and understandably so, is whether if they file for bankruptcy they’re going to be able to keep their home. The answer depends on the following factors. Number one, how much you owe on the home, and then how much the home is actually worth in today’s market. The reason though that’s really a standard.
As a single person, you can only have $22,500 in equity in your home and still file a Chapter 7. If you have more equity than that, and the house is titled just in your name, then it’s probably not advisable to file a Chapter 7 case, a bankruptcy case if you want to keep your home. Now, if you’re underwater in the home, you owe $150,000 but the house is only worth $100,000 it might make for a very good business decision to just go ahead and surrender the home in the Chapter 7 scenario.
If you are thinking of filing the bankruptcy case with you and your spouse, then the amount of equity that you can protect actually doubles. You can double the amount so double the $22,500. For a single person, you can now protect $45,000 in equity in your home. If you think that you are close to being able to file but you might not qualify, there are several things that can be done to try to get you under the equity limit so that you can still keep your house. First of all and foremost, we’re probably going to want to go ahead and get a list of all of the repairs that need to be done to the home so that that will bring the value of the home down.
Because the value of the home by will.com or something may show $300,000 when in reality your home is only worth $250,000 because of all the repairs. If we can look at all the repairs that need to be made, all the current cells in the neighborhood, then we may well be able to get you into a situation where you can file a Chapter 7 and still keep your home. If you have questions about filing Chapter 7 and whether you going to be able to keep your home or not, call my office at 770-792-1000.
Bankruptcy FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions: Table of Contents Who is permitted to file and maintain a chapter 7 case? Who should not file a Chapter 7 case? Is there anything that a person must do
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