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Filing for bankruptcy in Jacksonville, Florida, exempts a certain amount of the filer’s personal property from the collection by creditors. Normally, debtors are allowed to keep the personal property worth $1000, vehicle equity worth $1000 and then either a homestead or an additional personal property worth $4000.
A property needs to be under half-acre, if it is in a municipality, and up to 160 acres, if it is in an incorporated area, for it to qualify for a homestead.
The value assigned to the property should be its approximate auction value, i.e., the value which you think you will be able to get for it at an auction in bankruptcy. It is difficult to evaluate your property and sometimes needs professional assistance. Creating a thorough list, of all that you own, is very important! The unintentional omission of valuable property might look like an attempted fraud. In some cases, an appraiser can pay a visit to your house for your property evaluation, though it happens rarely. However, you can select the property you want to keep, based on its value. You can elect something else for exemption in place of an old valuable property that you don’t want to keep.
In some situations, a person might possess more property than can be exempted, especially, in the case of automobiles. If the value of a person’s car is $5000 and he or she keeps a home and personal property worth $1000, an exemption of $1000 of vehicle equity will only be left for him or her to apply towards the car. That will leave them with unprotected vehicle equity worth $4000, which can be seized by the trustee for the creditor’s benefit. In order to keep the car in this situation, a sum of money (about 85% of the un-exempt value) can be offered to the trustee. The cost involved in towing, storing and auctioning the repossessed item often leads to the acceptance of the discount by the trustee. The trustee can be paid the agreed amount of money, over a certain period of time (often as long as a year). This is known as a “buy-back” because you actually buy back the equity in your car from the trustee. In this case, a “Notice of Private Sale” will be filed by the trustee to indicate the selling of the vehi
cle to the debtor.
The kinds and amounts of exempted property differ in every state. Those exemptions are also supposed to be used to file residency requirements. The debtor must be a resident of Florida for at least 91 days out of the last 180 days, to use most of the state’s exemptions. The debtor must be the owner of the homestead property, which is worth more than $125,000, for at least 1215 days if he or she wishes to exempt it.
It is advisable to consult an experienced bankruptcy attorney to learn about the best ways of structuring the bankruptcy exemptions and to own maximum property after bankruptcy. You can contact the best bankruptcy attorneys of Los Angeles & Dallas, TX, at www.recoverylawgroup.com or on 888-297-6203.