Florida (Middle District) chapter 7 exemptions

[anebt2]

My husband and I want to file chapter 7. My only concern is regarding two vehicles and personal property. We are taking the homestead exemption.

1. 1999 Chevrolet Silverado, work truck, inside is tore up with seats slashed, etc. Has dents and 200,000 miles. There is NO Black Book value for the 1500 series.
2. 2001 Cadillac Deville, needs new AC system. Got an estimate for $1736, more than what th car's worth. Also needs new shocks.

3. Most of our furniture was bought in 1999, when we bought our 1500 sq foot house.
We added an old desktop computer, an old tv (rear projection), a sofa/loveseat we bought used for $280, a used dryer we bought for $150 or so. Home appliances are 8 years or older.

My questions are these:

1. It's really hard to price the personal property because it is so old. Our sofa/loveseat has cat scratches in it, as do our dining chairs and dining table top.
There is water damage on one night stand. Scratches from our cats abound in all our furniture. How do I price this? We have two bedrooms and an office.
2. In Florida, we can only exempt one vehicle. I have heard there is a way to rollover excess equity into the $2000 personal property exemption, but I don't see that in the statutes.

The Schedule 106C is the only form that we have a problem with..

[justbroke]

[QUOTE=anebt2;n1017314]1. It's really hard to price the personal property because it is so old. Our sofa/loveseat has cat scratches in it, as do our dining chairs and dining table top. There is water damage on one night stand. Scratches from our cats abound in all our furniture. How do I price this? We have two bedrooms and an office.[/QUOTE}Use yard sale prices. How much would you pay for the furniture at a yard sale if you were forced to buy it? You can't say "nothing" or "free" because there is some value. Dining chairs, $25 each? Dining table top $100? Sofa/loveseat, $100? Please be aware that there are some Chapter 7 Panel Trustees in Florida that will send an appraiser anyhow, so don't undervalue, but also don't over-value to where you end up needing to "buy back" things.

2. In Florida, we can only exempt one vehicle. I have heard there is a way to rollover excess equity into the $2000 personal property exemption, but I don't see that in the statutes.

In Florida, you can exempt one vehicle per debtor. The exemption is $1,000 on a single vehicle. If you are filing together, then you could choose to both exempt the same vehicle. Florida (at list the Middle Division), uses the Black Book clean retail for valuation. The personal property exemption is for "any" property so it could also be used for the vehicles.

The Schedule 106C is the only form that we have a problem with..

That's the Exemptions form. Yes, it is VERY difficult to exempt property in Florida especially if you're using the unlimited homestead exemption. You have only a $1,000 property exemption, a $1,000 exemption in a single vehicle, and not much else (you can double the exemptions when you are married and file jointly).

Are you trying to file on your own? In any consultation with attorneys you may want ask whether a tenancy by the entireties (TBE) exemption is available for your property (residence) and how that could affect the unused homestead exemption. This is why we pay the attorneys. It's just another angle and may not be available in your case. Since we are dealing with what appears to be a home with more than $8,000 in equity, you don't want to mess this up!

[anebt2]

Justbroke, what do you mean by unused homestead exemption?

Okay, I got a copy of my sister's chapter 7 filed 2011. She did not have a homestead exemption. I do, so there's some difference.

1. Her attorney used three statutes/amendments to get $6000 of personal property exempted. Half of it was a $3000 tax return that was due.
2. Here are the three statutes/amendments for the $6000:

Fl Statutes 222.25(1): $1000 Motor Vehicle .
Fl Stautes 222.25(4): $4000 Wildcard for those with no homestead exemption claimed
Fl Const art X, 4(a)(2): $1000 personal property

Her van was valued at over $1800, but the attorney used whatever values he could out of the other two exemptions, to exempt the vehicle entirely.

My husband and I are claming the homestead exmption, so we have:

Florida Statutes 222.25(1), $1000 Motor Vehicle .
Fl Const art X, 4(a)(2): $1000 personal property

We combine the two exemptions, double them (being married filing jointly), add the car, truck and personal property together, and make sure it's less than $4000.

So that's how the Exemptions work in Florida.

[justbroke]

1. One vehicle exempted under Art X Florida Constitution.
2. A second vehicle exempted under the Fl Statute.

I can't tell you specifically which exemption(s) to use because a.) that would be (bad) legal advice because I'm not an attorney, and b.) I don't want you to lose property because I told you to use X when you should have used Y.

You can use the same exemption for multiple things, unless there is a restriction on the exemption. An example of a restriction is the $1,000 exemption for a motor vehicle. Under Florida Statute (F.S.) 222.25(1), you can apply this exemption to a single motor vehicle (not spread between vehicles). From what I can remember, and it's up to you to read and understand them, the other statutes don't have such a restriction as the motor vehicle exemption.

Article X, Section 4 contains both the $1,000 household goods exemption and the unlimited homestead exemption. I used "Const 10-4" when referring to this on my Schedule C. (If you want, you can spell out Fla. Constitution Art. X Sec 4. I was trying to save space!)

When you are not receiving the benefit of the unlimited homestead exemption, you use the "unused homestead exemption", which is actually statutory and not constitutional. The statutory (unused homestead exemption) is found in F.S. 222.25(4).

For example, when I exempted things using only the statutory unused homestead exemption, my actual Schedule C showed "F.S. 222.25(4)".

For my car I put "F.S. 222.25(1)" as I didn't have enough left from my "unused homestead exemption" to deal with it. If I did have some leftover, it could have read "F.S. 222.25(1); F.S. 222.25(4)". It simply means I'm relying on both 222.25(1), the $1,000 exemption in a single automobile, and my statutory unused homestead exemption found in 222.25(4) to exempt the amount shown in the "value of claimed exemption" column.

Please be aware that Trustee is going to check the math and the specific law you used to claim the exemption.

Is the personal property done the same way? IOW, $1000 under the statute and $1000 under the Article X?

I listed each line of my personal property as "F.S. 222.25(4); Const. 10-4;" because the $1,000 comes from the constitution, and the "unused homestead exemption" comes from F.S. 222.25(4).

You just need to make sure you're keeping track of what you used for each because the forms do not have any mechanism for tracking what you used from which exemption. I used a simple spreadsheet to make sure I didn't go over the amounts.

I hope that helps more than it hurts! All those "F.S." things and 222.25(4), and 222.25(1) just looks so strange when it's on your Schedule C! You just need to know how to use them.

[anebt2]

Justbroke, thank you for the heads up on the statute for the car. (F.S. 222.25(1), one vehicle only, no spread to a second vehicle).

I'm still confused about homestead exemption--F.S. 222.25(4). What do you mean by "unused."
I have one house. I thought unused was for those whose homes were underwater?
We have a good amount equity in the house. Thanks.

[justbroke]

My husband and I are claming the homestead exmption, so we have:

Florida Statutes 222.25(1), $1000 Motor Vehicle .
Fl Const art X, 4(a)(2): $1000 personal property

We combine the two exemptions, double them (being married filing jointly), add the car, truck and personal property together, and make sure it's less than $4000.

Ahh, you updated your post from earlier.

You don't have $4,000 in "wildcard" exemptions against "all" property. You each have $1,000 to apply to a single vehicle (or you can "each" apply $1,000 to a different vehicle). Taht means you have "at least" $2,000 to apply to one or two vehicles. You then have a "personal" property exemption of $1,000 each which you can apply to any property. That means you have $2,000 to apply to any personal property, which could be any vehicle or vehicles, or any other property (furniture, clothing, sporting equipment, money in bank that's no otherwise exempt under another statute, etc.).

The simple part is that you have $2,000 that can ONLY be applied to one or more vehicles. You have $2,000 that can be applied to ANY property.

I'm still confused about homestead exemption--F.S. 222.25(4). What do you mean by "unused." I have one house. I thought unused was for those whose homes were underwater? We have a good amount equity in the house. Thanks.

If you have equity in the home and are keeping it (retaining it), then you don't have an "unused" homestead exemption (F.S. 222.25(4)). I had not noticed that you updated your post after I posted earlier. My post took about 10 minutes to write so it overlapped your posting. It happens!

The purpose of the "unused" homestead exemption was to offset the super stingy $1,000 personal property exemption that Florida gives to debtors. If the debtor didn't have a home, then they only could protect $1,000 worth of personal property. However, a person who owned a $1,000,000 home and had no mortgage, could protect, well, $1,000,000 of real property. To make this more fair, the legislature created 222.25(4) in 2007 to be "nicer" given this huge benefit for homeowners.

So, if you are keeping your home and you have equity, then you are using or receiving the benefit of the unlimited homestead exemption in Article 10 Section 4 of the Florida constitution. You then can not claim the exemption in F.S. 222.25(4)... the $4,000 "unused" homestead exemption. I was posting without the benefit of your updated post.

Hope that's making sense.

[anebt2]

Got it. Thank you very much.

[anebt2]

So this is what I've done:

Cadillac Deville 2001: $1000 exemption: FL Statutes 222.25 (1).
Chevrolet Silverado 1999: $1000 exemption: FL Statutes 222.25 (1).
Personal property $2000 exemption Fl Const. art. X 4(a)(2)
Homestead: Fl Const. art. X 4(a)(2)

This is for married filing jointly.