PLEASE HELP: Ready to purchase cars pre Chapter 13. Trade in or sell to pocket money

[christeyanne]

Hi All, went to the car dealer today and we able to find that we can finance a $20k, used 2013 minivan with low miles and new 2014 little Nissan commuter car for a combined total of $820 a month WITHOUT down payments. I was so waiting for them to come back and say we weren't approved, what a relief Here's my question. My husbands 99' Saturn we are giving to my step-son as it's worth nothing and has 130k miles. I'm thinking that would be okay, we can just keep in our name, right and say it's for stepson he's a senior and will be going to community college next year. As far as our 02' Town & Country, again not worth much, it's pretty beat-up. Would it look bad if we didn't trade it in and sold it out right on Craigslist for $1,500. Would the Trustee be looking for that money? It would sure help right now in the retainer for attorney. I only ask because the questionaire I have for the attorney I'm meeting with on Friday asks if we've sold ANYTHING to ANYONE worth more than $500.00 in the past 5 years? We are supposed to go back tomorrow and get vehicles, but now I'm wondering if we should just trade in the van. What to do, what to do?

[Pandora]

The car you want to give your son will be taken into account either way you go; if you gift it to him, Trustee can take it back or ask for the value of it. If you sell it outright (either vehicle) trustee can again ask for the value of it. Can you exempt either vehicle? If you can, then you'll be okay but you still have to claim them.

Since you just purchased new vehicles - make sure you adjust your insurance accordingly on your Schedules when you fill them out.

[catleg]

Usually in a 13 they're not as strict about extra vehicles since you're presumably going to pay more into the plan through payments than the chapter 7 liquidation value of the assets. As long as you aren't using them to pad expenses in your budget you should be fine.

[christeyanne]

Thank you all for responses. We ended up trading in our old minivan for basically next to nothing. We are keeping other car for son. Lawyer I met with on Friday didn't think it would be a problem.