No-Asset Case ?

[leelee]

Could you tell me exactly what a no-asset (7) case is ?

Is it where:

You don't own a car, house, ANY investment (incl. 401K) ? ? ?

Literally NOTHING ?


Pardon my ignorance


Thank you...

[FilingOnMyOwn]

You can have all those things and still be no asset. You just can't have more than the allowable exemptions.

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

Pretty much (you don't owe anything of value that the Trustee could or would want to take to make money off of to pay back the creditors), your 401k should be exempt UNLESS you take it out. BUT YOU DONT want to do that. The more you put in your 401k the less DISPOSABLE INCOME you have to pay back creditors if for some reason you are thrown into Ch13

Best Wishes, Catchmeifyoucan

[keepmine]

No asset means, you have no assets beyond the amount that your state exempts.
I was no asset as well and emerged from my Chapter 7 with a net worth of +$90K. My equity in my home and my 401K and IRA were exempt assets.

[BKTango]

Everyone is correct, as long as all of your "stuff and property" fall under exemptions, AND that includes tax refunds, then you would pretty much be no asset. No-asset just means in a nut shell, after you have used up all of your exemptions, there is no property, stuff, or money left over for the trustee to distribute.

Example: We were just discharged and closed on a no-asset CH7. We still have all of our stuff, our house, 2 cars and a truck that we drive. another car and a truck that my husband has for "projects". Our travel trailer, our tax refund.....so on. Because we could exempt it all as everything has very little value (old cars) (small cheap house), matter of a fact we still didn't use up all of our exemptions during our bankruptcy.

So you can have it all, as long as it's exempted. *Remember* not to use "brand new" pricing on your belongings. Fair market value on home and cars etc. Garage sale type pricing on your stuff.

[jal1129]

The exemptions vary WILDLY by state. In my state we are'nt allowed to keep hardly anything at all, which was okay because we don't have anything!

I am amazed when I read how high the exemptions are in other states!

[AMISLANDER]

In FL....

...because my 2000 4Runner was free & clear, they wanted to take it....I ended up having to get an appraisal to show the trustee it wasn't worth as much as he thought it was as well as pay $1,600.00 to keep it....

...I thought I was supposed to be broke & bankrupt but I had to come up with the money, otherwise the trustee would take it...

[JollyGG]

No asset means, you have no assets beyond the amount that your state exempts.
I was no asset as well and emerged from my Chapter 7 with a net worth of +$90K. My equity in my home and my 401K and IRA were exempt assets.

Wow, this just made me realize that once this is all over we will actually have a positive net worth. Nowhere near 90K but no longer a negative net worth. I'm sure everyone here realizes how amazing that is. We'll have a few thousand in equity and three paid for cars, as well as a few bucks in saving. That is a fantastic realization.

[lrprn]

Wow, this just made me realize that once this is all over we will actually have a positive net worth. Nowhere near 90K but no longer a negative net worth. I'm sure everyone here realizes how amazing that is. We'll have a few thousand in equity and three paid for cars, as well as a few bucks in saving. That is a fantastic realization.

Amazing moment when you realize this, isn't it? I had the very same reaction when it first dawned on me too!

This is exactly why bankruptcy exists in the first place - to give us a fresh financial start with a positive net worth. It's our chance to learn the hard lessons of bankruptcy and then launch ourselves slowly back out into the unforgiving credit world to try again, hopefully a lot smarter about budgets and manageable debt loads this time around.

[keepmine]

Yep, the Supreme Court got it right a long time ago.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=292&invol=234

One of the primary purposes of the Bankruptcy Act is to 'relieve the honest debtor from the weight of oppressive indebtedness, and permit him to start afresh free from the obligations and responsibilities consequent upon business misfortunes.' Williams v. U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 236 U.S. 549, 554 , 555 S., 35 S.Ct. 289, 290. This purpose of the act has been again and again emphasized by the courts as being of public as well as private interest, in that it gives to the honest but unfortunate debtor who surrenders for distribution the property which he owns at the time of bankruptcy, a new opportunity in life and a clear field for future effort, unhampered by the pressure and discouragement of pre-existing debt

Ya gotta take advantage of the opportunity and get it right the second time.
Me, I'm the only man in America without DSL, a cell phone, a HELOC or, a credit card. A few months after my discharge, I picked up a pt job working overnight 2 nights a week. The pt gig nets me $115/week and that goes right into savings. I'm beat by the weekend but, I sure ain't broke! I'll likely keep this up until I retire.

[SinkingFast]

Me, I'm the only man in America without DSL, a cell phone, a HELOC or, a credit card.

Until last week, I coulda named one more. But,.......... My FIL got himself a pay as you go Cell phone!!

LeeLee,.........

What State do you live in??!! We can help you better with your Exemptions if we know that.

[Ch7Ted]

Ya gotta take advantage of the opportunity and get it right the second time.
Me, I'm the only man in America without DSL, a cell phone, a HELOC or, a credit card.

Make it two men - I have no DSL (my father won't allow DSL or Cable Internet installations), cell phone, HELOC (I have no home of my own) or credit card. I also do not have a car. I do pay $11 a month for dial-up Internet service but I go to colleges and libraries for high speed Internet. I live on disability and I pay child support. My Ch 7 BK gave me a fresh start in wiping out all my debts. The only thing is that I haven't worked in almost 16 months and I feel like I retired when I was in my early 30's. Another good thing about not working - not paying taxes.

[yomama]

Make it two men - I have no DSL (my father won't allow DSL or Cable Internet installations), cell phone, HELOC (I have no home of my own) or credit card. I also do not have a car. I do pay $11 a month for dial-up Internet service but I go to colleges and libraries for high speed Internet. I live on disability and I pay child support. My Ch 7 BK gave me a fresh start in wiping out all my debts. The only thing is that I haven't worked in almost 16 months and I feel like I retired when I was in my early 30's. Another good thing about not working - not paying taxes.

My husband and I just got our cell phones two years ago and that's only because my car is 14 years old and I'm afraid it will let me sit someday. We live in a rural area and it could be a long walk to a phone. We have no DSL. We must really be behind the times because I don't even know what the heck a HELOC is??!! We did have credit cards and that's how we got in our mess, and we don't intend to ever start them up again. If we don't have the money, we go without whatever it is we think we need. We used to go to restaurants and went on vacation once every year or two. That is a thing of the past now. When I weigh the anxiety we had trying to pay on the credit cards and getting nowhere compared to the things we did and got that we felt we needed to do and get, I'll take staying at home and only buying the bare necessities anyday over that constant worry that we had all the time. We're still not discharged, but we don't foresee any problems, and we feel better than we have in years. It's too easy for people to get credit nowadays and get in over their heads. Even now yet we're getting lots of offers in the mail that we throw away. Thank goodness for BK. We put off doing it because we wanted to do what we thought was the responsible thing to do, which was to pay off our debts, but we finally realized that we weren't getting anywhere and we'd be paying on them until the day we die. I think it would have only gotten worse. We had credit cards ever since we got married almost 27 years ago and kept them paid off from month to month for a long time, but at some point we let the amounts slowly creep up and before we realized that we were in it way too deep, it was too late to get out the "responsible" way. I was brought up to believe that a person should pay his/her bills and that bankruptcy was something to be ashamed of. Finding this forum made me realize that it's nothing to be ashamed of but instead a way to start over again with a clean slate and learn from past mistakes. It has definitely been a learning experience and a humbling one. I'm so glad that I found this forum so we could see the light.

[Granny]

HELOC means home equity line of credit.

When you are a no asset case and you have a home and only other exempt assets, what does Pacer say about assets.

I think my assets are all exempt but I'm not sure. I obviously live in the generous state of Texas and of course my home is exempt and I think my other assets are as well, but Pacer indicates that I have assets.

Not that it matters since I filed a 13, but what if I converted? How do I tell for sure that my assets are exempt.

I don't understand how the assets exemption works when one spouse files and the other spouse does not.

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

Granny

HELOC means home equity line of credit.
When you are a no asset case and you have a home and only other exempt assets, what does Pacer say about assets.
I think my assets are all exempt but I'm not sure. I obviously live in the generous state of Texas and of course my home is exempt and I think my other assets are as well, but Pacer indicates that I have assets.
Not that it matters since I filed a 13, but what if I converted? How do I tell for sure that my assets are exempt.
I don't understand how the assets exemption works when one spouse files and the other spouse does not.

Me too, I filed a no asset case too, but the Trustee filed an asset notification, I only own a new car which I'm still paying for, no house (rent an effiency) and no business - I'm baffled. The only thing I can think of is he's waiting to see if I get a tax refund, NOT (I'll owe $4000). I guess he considers the car an asset even though I'm still paying for it?

Best Wishes, Catchmeifyoucan