car surrender pre-file: will it be covered under Ch7?

[bethgould]

I owe $4100 on my car. It's current private-party resale value is $2200, and the car needs about $2000 in major & minor repairs to make it reliable. My daily work commute is 37 miles total, so it's really important that my car is in good condition!

Anyway, I just decided to surrender my car & file Ch7. I won't be filing for several months, and my loan is currently 12 days past due. I was going to pay my Jan 14th loan this past payday (1/22), but earlier that week my mom called me to say that her own car was going to be repoed for being several months past due. Her car is newer, lower mileage, in great mechanical condition, and she owes a few hundred less than her balance. Her pmt is about $50 less than mine, too.

I decided to pay the $570 that was needed to stop the repo, and I'm going to get her loan current and continue paying it. I did that on 1/22, and took her car home. She was already going to lose it, and she's happy that I'll now have a reliable car to get me to work.

I'm not going to pay on my car loan anymore, and my finance company repoes after 60 or 90 days delinquency. Will this debt be included with my other debts in the BK? I may not be able to file Ch7 until May or June (or longer) because I also owe on my 2009 Fed & State taxes.

[BassBoy]

You did you not file yet and you won't be able to use paying your Mother's auto loan on any of your BK documents because the loan is not yours. This could be a sticky situation if you end up being a CH.13 because it will appear that your disposable income is $570 more than it really is. Or did I miss something in your post.

Anyway, to answer the last part of your post....yes, the debt of your car will be included with your BK and the debt will be discharged.

[bethgould]

You did you not file yet and you won't be able to use paying your Mother's auto loan on any of your BK documents because the loan is not yours. This could be a sticky situation if you end up being a CH.13 because it will appear that your disposable income is $570 more than it really is. Or did I miss something in your post.

Anyway, to answer the last part of your post....yes, the debt of your car will be included with your BK and the debt will be discharged.

I don't own any property, just a renter, and have about 10k in old unsecured collections debts on my credit reports. I have 10k in a federal student loan I'm paying on, but I know that's not includable in a BK. Because of this, I would be a filing Ch7 from what I read online.

I'm waiting to pay the BK filing fees because I just spent $570 on getting my (mom's) car out of repo, and another $600 is needed to get current. I'll have the loan current (past due + current monthly dues that accrue) by early-to-mid April. The car's monthly loan pmt is $257.59, and I'll be paying that for the remaining 24 months of the loan (if I don't get it paid off quicker, which is what I plan on doing).

I'm new to the whole idea of BK, and haven't gotten into what documentation is required of me at my court hearing. If the loan amount & auto insurance dues can't be tagged as such for court, then I guess I'll have to wait until I have (mom's) the car paid off.

I've got lots of studying to do this week about all that! I hope it's not too difficult to get a BK in Ohio.

[bethgould]

surrender pre-file or wait as long as possible?

I am so close to having all my paperwork filled out, and hope to go to the courthouse to file my ch.7 next week (week of Feb 22). My car loan is 31 days past due, and my finance company repoes at 60-90 days. The car is garaged and I don't drive it anymore. I don't know if I should call them to come get it before I file or not. At this point, so close to filing, I don't think I would have to worry about getting sued by them for the balance after auction. The process would take more than a couple weeks, right?