Anyone w/ home equity go thru ch 7 and keep home??

[lalap123]

We do have some equity in home but do not have enough disposable income to file ch 13. I am filing individually and my husband's one overriding concern is that the trustee not move to seize our house and sell it. I have been told by several attorneys that 9 times out of 10 the trustee will allow the debtor to pay back any equity either in a lump sum or over a period of time.

I would love to hear some real stories from people that have actually experienced or seen this. Why on earth would a trustee want to try to sell my house out from under me if I am willing and able to pay the excess equity back???

[TEW]

Is there more equity then exemption?

[willbfree]

lalap123 we filed our Ch 7 and we have equity in our home. Our state is lenient and allows a property exemption of $150K which our current equity is under that limit. Like you, we don't have any disposable income for a Ch 13 unless I would go back to work.

I looked up GA and only saw a $5K exemption for a home. http://www.georgiabankruptcy.com/exemptions.html

If you have more than $5k in equity this is definitely something you should discuss with an atty before you file.

[lalap123]

Yes, there will be excess equity after my exemption (which I've been told over and over is $10,000 for single filer and $20,000 for filing jointly...what web site were you looking at? Maybe I should double check it myself.)

Owe $202K, appraisal should come back around $240K, although we aren't going to have it done until closer to filing - August or Septmber of this year.

I understand that they usually calculate 10% for fees and take that off as well, so I think we'd be cutting it close.

[willbfree]

You probably have the most up to date current figures. I just Googled it and found that website about GA exemptions. (Click the link in my post for the site.)

I still suggest you talk to an attorney because there may be something you can do in this pre-bk period to avoid being over with the exemption. Do you have a second mortgage? Our second mortgage reduced our equity amount and is what saved us. Without it our equity would have been too high for the exemption. Again this is just MY idea talk to an atty who might have better advice or maybe someone here from GA can provide info on how they handled the situation.