Auto in MY name only, but will be filing jointly! HELP!

[moonbeam9209]

Here's a good one. My husband and I moved to Georgia from Florida in 2007. In 2008, we went to register our cars in Georgia, and my van, which is an 06 Kia Sedona, paid for and probably worth about 10k, when I registered it, I just had them put my name on the title. Previously, both of our names were on it. Not thinking about bk or anything other problems down the road, now I have a vehicle in MY name only that I want to exempt in our bk.

My question is, can I add his name on the title, or is that considered transfer of property? His car is worth about 2500.00, and we owe 400 on it to our Credit union, whom has told us that they will not be releasing the title to us, since we owe them 8k on a credit card. So I do not know if we will be needing an exemption on my husbands car, but I would definitely need the 7k (3500 x 2 exemptions) on my car, and be using part of our home exemption to cover the car.

We owe about 191,000 on our home that we bought in 07 for 242k, but I do not think it is worth more than 195-200k with the economy the way it is.

We have not hired a lawyer yet, but we need to asap now that I have a Summary judgement from Target Visa that was entered into the courts on February 11. THAT's another story.

Thanks in advance for your help!!!!!

[SMinGA]

I'm in GA - its $3500 per person so a married couple gets $7000. As far as I know, it does not have to be on 2 cars.

There is also $600x2 in wild card, and any unused homestead exemption up to $5000 max per person. (Homestead is $10,000 each.)

If your house is in a subdivision - you can check at zillow.com to see if any similar to it in your neighborhood have sold recently. Might help with the home valuation? Our house is newer than what is in most of our neighborhood, but I found the closest thing possible and it sold for alot less than what ours was appraised at in 2006. So I went in the middle (of the old appraisal & that sale) and so far it is not being questioned. That uses most of our homestead, and is probably a high estimate considering things are sitting empty for years before selling here...

[moonbeam9209]

I'm in GA - its $3500 per person so a married couple gets $7000. As far as I know, it does not have to be on 2 cars.

We have two cars: Mine (in my name only) is worth 10400.00 per nada value. So I could take the 3500 for mine, plus the 5000 homestead exemption which would bring it up to 8500, but I am not sure if I can ADD the wildcard to that, since the "unused portion of homestead exemption" is also considered a wildcard, and they are the same law # in the NOLO book.

Hubby's car should be no problem. It is valued at around 5000, and he can use the auto exemption of 3500 and 1500 of his homestead exemption. I wonder if I can use the unused portion of his homestead for my car? Like I said, my car is in my name only and I considered adding his name to the title, since it was a stupid overlook on my part, but I don't know how they would view me putting his name on the title right before filing?

There is also $600x2 in wild card, and any unused homestead exemption up to $5000 max per person. (Homestead is $10,000 each.)

If your house is in a subdivision - you can check at zillow.com to see if any similar to it in your neighborhood have sold recently. Might help with the home valuation? Our house is newer than what is in most of our neighborhood, but I found the closest thing possible and it sold for alot less than what ours was appraised at in 2006. So I went in the middle (of the old appraisal & that sale) and so far it is not being questioned. That uses most of our homestead, and is probably a high estimate considering things are sitting empty for years before selling here...

I think we will be ok on the equity in our home. We pd 243k, owe 191k, but the house across the street sold for 176k just a year ago, and another one is in forclosure and just sold for 145k a week ago. So I am going to put that our home is worth 185k, and that will leave us with negative equity.