Can I Keep My House After Filing Bankruptcy?

For most homeowners, their house is more than just a pile of bricks and wood, it’s filled with memories. The sentimental value of your home can count for a lot, and if you are dealing with serious debt issues, you might be hesitant to file bankruptcy for fear of losing your home. Fortunately, you may be able to keep your home even after filing for bankruptcy. There are some debt resolution methods that allow individuals and families to retain their home or other precious properties, if they do everything correctly.

If you are facing mounting debt and wish to resolve your financial issues while still retaining your family home, find out how you can keep your house after filing bankruptcy.

Knowing Your Options

Bankruptcy can be an extremely efficient way to knock out piling debt without too much trouble. Even though the bankruptcy process can be complex, if you have a knowledgeable bankruptcy attorney on your side, the process is doable and fairly painless.

• Chapter 7: Most individuals file for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, depending on their income, their debt, and their own personal preferences. Through Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can use nonexempt properties to pay back a portion of your debt to debtors. For many people, this means losing their house, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. You could choose to keep the house by selling more of your other properties, or you could keep the house if it is considered an exempt property. Some people may not qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy because their income is too high, which means filing for Chapter 13 may be the only other option.
• Chapter 13: Chapter 13 bankruptcy, on the other hand, does not require you to sell any assets to pay off your debts. Through Chapter 13, you can create a payment plan to pay creditors a set amount over a concrete period of time. Usually, this only pays a portion of the debt, but does not include the loss of any assets.

Finding the Best Option for You

There are benefits to choosing either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy and either option could enable you to retain possession of your home. If you do not have a significant amount of equity in your home, it may be considered exempt property, which means it could not be used to balance your debts if you filed for Chapter 7. On the other hand, if you have a significant amount of equity in your home, you may be past the exemption limit, which means Chapter 7 may not be the best option for you.

In general, folks who file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy stand a better chance of keeping their family home because debt is handled through payments, not property liquidation. If you are interested in resolving your debt issues through bankruptcy, our firm can help. We can work with you to determine the best possible situation for your given situation.

Contact Scaringi Law today to get help with your bankruptcy case from our Harrisburg business lawyers.