Intro

[TPJ]

Good morning everyone! I’m new here & seeking out advice/suggestions on filing

[shipo]

The best advice we can give you is to follow the advice of your attorney. The only thing I might add is if you're filing for a Chapter 13, make sure you have a new(ish) car which will survive the five years of the bankruptcy.

[TPJ]

My husband, soon to be ex, is wanting to file ch 7 & both of our names are on my car. What do you suggest in this case?

[justbroke]

Make sure that your divorce and bankruptcy attorneys so that things are done in the right order. If the ex-spouse discharges the debt on the vehicle but is required to pay for the vehicle under a marital separate agreement on property, then it can get tricky. (Tricky in that you'd likely need to go into the family court to enforce the MSA even though the other spouse discharged the debt in bankruptcy.)

The reason I say to work together is that you two need to agree on the vehicles in some manner. As part of your MSA you could force one to "surrender" title (I had to do that) to the other. There are other things that can be done but you 100% need the two (or three) attorneys coordinating.

[TPJ]

I don’t care to lose my vehicle, only bc I owe so much and have negative equity. I do, however, need a vehicle to go to and from work plus take my child to school. Would it be better to purchase a newer vehicle to pay for than to keep the one we have in both of our names?

[TPJ]

justbroke or shipo ?

[shipo]

Unless you are filing Chapter 7 as well, you cannot just walk away from the vehicle as you will still owe the debt, and if you trade it in and roll the extra debt into the new(er) vehicle, you'll just be deeper under water.

[justbroke]

I can't provide advice on that. You are in the middle of a divorce with the cars titled in both names. You need your marital separation agreement to deal with the other car. The problem is that you both own both vehicles. There's no easy answer that I could just give you.

[TPJ]

shipo Would you suggest I file ch 7 as well? If that’s the case, what advice do you have for filing a ch 7? I haven’t looked into that option. Should I just go and get another vehicle without trading mine in before I file 7?

[shipo]

There is no clear path in front of you and lots of pitfalls regardless of which path you take regarding the car; I would rely on the advice of your divorce and/or bankruptcy attorney (hopefully the divorce attorney can also handle the bankruptcy for you if you chose that option).