Boy did we get lucky. I am a partner in a California business that went south and could not sustain the operating costs. We decided to close the business and walk away. We had $1.2million in personal secured guarantees tied to SBA, home equity (2nd), and business leases. My spouse makes more than the minimum requirement for the Chapter 7 and the means test. We thought we were screwed.

Our saving grace was 50% of our unsecured debt was tied to the business, which meant we did not qualify for the means test and could file Chapter 7 outright. We filed and had a pretty easy time, but rest assured had to show proof of statements, etc. We were able to keep cash, retirement, kids accounts, 401k's, everything!

The downside is we will lose our house becasue of the first, second and SBA, but we owe more than it is worth. The good news is we have not made a payment since last May. It will be better to rent for a while anyways.

Question - Wells Fargo (our second) had a court date for an Automatic Relief of Stay, which was approved October 20th. Now WF has to file the follow up order, which they have not done. Does anyone have experience with the timeline for this? Once they file, then comes the NOD, and we have 90 + 21 days until we have to start the process to vacate.

Thanks.