advice about vehicles and exemption scenario.

[budman66]

Filing for chapter 7....
all vehs paid for..no leins.

Any advice on how to handle a scenario with a state auto exemption of 5k......

99 large sedan trade in value 5k ....
99 mid size sedan trade in..hard to tell wrecked 2k........trade in value is 4k but since its wrecked...i really dont know....
89 truck trade in 1200
73 mustang not running nada 3k retail low for daily driver, i am thinking only 1500 or so....


the wrecked car im going to try to sell asap and use the money keep money orders....to pay up my car insurance, buy food, pay phone , cell phone and other things.....

i really want to keep all 3, i know you can always have your cake and eat it too but....but most importantly i want the large sedan since its the most reliable and able to transport my kids, the truck is a utility vehicle, and only reason it want it is to be able to get to work in bad winter weather, the mustang was my first car ive had since 18....and it is very important to me for sentimental reasons but reason to keep and not give up is the relativey low value.

would i have more sucess for listing the sedan as my exemption vehicle, and then working out a deal for the truck and mustang which would be difference of 2300 with the trustee....?
OR exempt the old vehs and work out a deal on the sedan....? or does it make a difference.....

i got the used car values from kbb trade in values, and the mustang guessed from a retail low amount of 3k for a daily driver...and my vehicle is really a restoration project yet titled and insured.

also when a vehicle is sold....is it better to keep the money out of the checking account and pay cash and keep receipts or to put it in the checking account and spend it all so theres a record of money....and where it went.

im single with income under the state median. dont own any other assets other than the vehicles.

[BKTango]

Depending on how soon you plan on filing, selling one of the vehicles may not be the best option. However, to your question, using cash and getting receipts, or using your bank account to write checks to show where the money went won't matter. You may still need the receipt and if it's spent on necessary expenses then make sure you get receipts.

I am not sure what state you are in, but I will just give you an example of my personal situation regarding vehicles. We have a 97 sedan, a 96 two door sports car, a 86 truck, 87 dually truck, and an older 70's muscle car for restoration. Neither the dually nor the project car were running at the time of filing. Using kbb, we also took into consideration any repairs that we knew were needed/imminent regarding pricing. For example, the 97 sedan was valued at roughly $3000....but it needed a new transmission and struts...so we valued it at a little under $2000. The non-running vehicles were valued at $100 a piece. Our lawyer was the one that first put the $100 figure on the non-running vehicles. The trustee never said a word. We were well under the median and were able to cover all of them with our exemptions since our home and all of our stuff didn't even add up to the allowable exemption amount.

You being under the median and depending on if you have enough exemptions left, you may be able to exempt it all and not worry. Especially since you have no other assets. But as always it's best to check with your attorney if you have one, on what is considered normal for you area.

If you are unable to exempt all of the vehicles it of course would be wisest to make sure the one that is your primary transportation gets exemption. You can always work out something with the trustee if possible to pay them the value of the other vehicles that you want to keep if needed.

[JollyGG]

What state are you in? There may be other exepmtions you can use to cover the unprotected value such as a wildcard exemption or unused homestead exemption.

[budman66]

i am in colorado and got info that the exemption is now 5k for single individual..most sites on the web say 3k......there is no wildcard exemption......from what i have been told....
i was thinking about selling the wrecked car ..since if i dont it just gets seized right.?..if it is not exempt.....and it might be better off utilizing what i can get for it for reasonable expenses...food etc. paying for an attorney to do this for me...etc.....?

who comes up with the values?
does the attorney? me or the trustee?
did you have to provide your kbb values as substantiation?
im afraid to list my old mustang like an old value of 100....even tho it is not running and in need of restoration.....since i am afraid to anger any trustee who will just take it and inflate the value of it....and give some unreasonable amount to buy it back for.....

im just really worried about everything lately...