- The equity in Real property or a mobile home up to $550,000
- Necessary household goods and yard equipment to $12,000
- Books to $1,500
- Burial plot purchase money held in trust
- Health aids
- Pictures and keepsakes
- Collections of minerals, art curiosities and paleontological remains
- One vehicle if equity does not exceed $15,000 or creditor paid amount equal to excess above equity or no limit if equipped or modified to provide mobility for person with permanent disability
- One gun
- Annuity contract proceeds to $350 per month
- Fraternal benefit society benefits
- Group life or health policy or proceeds
- Health proceeds
- Life insurance policy or proceeds if annual premium not over $15,000
- ERISA-qualified benefits to $500,000
- Aid to blind, disabled and AFDC
- Unemployment compensation
- Property of business partnership
- Arms, uniforms and accouterments you're required to keep
- Cabin or dwelling of miner or prospector, cars, implements and appliances necessary for mining operations or mining claim to $4,500 total
- Farm trucks, stock, tools, equipment and seed to $4,500
- Professional library, office equipment, office supplies, tools and materials used to carry on trade to $4,500
- Minimum 75% of earned but unpaid wages or 50 times the federal minimum wage
A bankruptcy does not wipe out mortgages, deeds of trust and/or tax liens. Your lender still has the right to foreclose if you do not pay. If you keep making your monthly payments, the lender will not foreclose on you despite your bankruptcy filing.
Remember, the lender does not want your house. It simply wants you to pay regularly on your loan. Foreclosure is a last resort for the lender and is only used if it becomes obvious that it cannot get its money any other way.
If you still owe money on your vehicle, you can choose to reaffirm the debt to the secured lender. Under current bankruptcy law,
you must reaffirm your car loan within 45 days after the "341 meeting."
Simply going on making payments does not reaffirm your debt as it once did. Once your 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.
How to value your personal property:
Personal property is valued at what you could get at a garage sale or by selling it through ads in the newspaper and not what you paid for it. It is the amount that a reasonable person would pay for the property in its current condition-not new.
Be sure not to overvalue on't overvalue your stuff when listing your assets. But don't undervalue your stuff either...you do that and you risk attracting the attention of the Trustee who may think you are trying to pull a fast one. A special note on home exemptions...also known as homestead exemptions. Equity in a home is protected up to a certain amount which varies from state to state and change from time to time, so ask us what it is now in Nevada. Equity is the difference between the value and the amount you owe. If your home is worth $200,000 and you owe $140,000, your equity is the difference of $60,000.
Home exemptions are also limited to $125,000 if the debtor has been convicted of a felony, is guilty of state or federal securities fraud, racketeering, or intentional torts that have caused serious bodily injury or death within five years of filing.
