Chapter 13 ?

[nomoney76]

Have a question for you guys. As of now i can't file a bk7 and looking to do a 13.
I have a car and a motorcycle i want to keep but the bike has a co signer and im being told that the bike is a luxury item and the only way to keep it is have kept out of the 13 and have it look like the co signer is paying for it. Wont the trustee see that i have the bike ?

[bornfree2]

Its not so much 'what trustee can see', but what you declare on the forms under penalty of perjury. If you 'make it look like xyz', the statements can haunt you if you are questioned about them. Perhaps better idea is to learn deeply about chapter 7 / chapter 13 prior to filing to be best informed when you talk to a lawyer. Only you know your financial life and only you will bear the consequences after filing.

[justbroke]

Have a question for you guys. As of now i can't file a bk7 and looking to do a 13.
I have a car and a motorcycle i want to keep but the bike has a co signer and im being told that the bike is a luxury item and the only way to keep it is have kept out of the 13 and have it look like the co signer is paying for it. Wont the trustee see that i have the bike ?

A Chapter 13 allows a debtor keep all property that they can afford. There are some basic thresholds when it comes to whether something is luxury in a Chapter 13, but that usually applies to cars that are over about $500/month in payments. Even then, the Chapter 13 will re-amortize a vehicle loan and it may place a car under the threshold.

As for boats, RVs, campers, and motorcycles (when they are not primary form of transportation), you can keep them so long as you can afford them. This usually means that you must pay into the Chapter 13 at least as much as those items are worth. This is known as the Chapter 7 Liquidation Test (or best interest of creditor's test).

The bottom line is that debtors keep things all the time in a Chapter 13. The key will be whether those payments disadvantage the unsecured creditors and whether or not the debtor can propose a feasible plan.

[flashoflight]

There are two hurdles for you to overcome. First is the issue of the value of non-exempt items that has to be paid via the best interests test, which is what JB described. This would be the only hurdle if you didn't have a loan on the bike.

Then there is the issue of the motorcycle payment. The trustee will not allow you to expense the monthly motorcycle payment unless you have a 100% plan. In other words, you're asking the trustee to allow your unsecured creditors to pay for a luxury item when you could be devoting that payment to the unsecured creditors. The automatic stay will prevent collection efforts on the co-signer with the co-debtor stay until the end of the 13. Despite the co-debtor way, the co-signer will need to make payments on the bike to avoid negative consequences after the 13 is done.

[nomoney76]

Thank you for all of your answers , Im going to meet with another attorney next week and see what they have to say.

Bornfree i can't do another chapter 7 until 2025 because of previous one.