{"id":2882,"date":"2018-12-05T13:34:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T13:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoenixfreshstartbankruptcy.com\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2018-12-03T13:56:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T13:56:38","slug":"common-bankruptcy-worries-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoenixfreshstartbankruptcy.com\/common-bankruptcy-worries-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Bankruptcy Worries – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
At Phoenix Fresh Start Bankruptcy Attorneys, our team works with a diverse group of clients with a broad range of financial issues. Below are some of the most common worries that we are told are in the back of our clients minds before they come into one of our Phoenix Bankruptcy Law Offices for a free consultation.<\/p>\n
Am I Going to Lose the House if I File Bankruptcy?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t worry, your lender is not going to take your house in bankruptcy. If you have lived in the state of Arizona for two years, you can claim the Arizona Homestead exemption which protects at least $150,000 in home equity. If you are current on your mortgage payments and have under $150,000 in equity, there is no barrier to filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n If you have more than $150,000 in home equity or are behind on your mortgage payments, you might want to consider Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you are behind on your mortgage, you can repay the arrears over a long period of time, interest free. If you have excess equity in your house, you can still keep the house and pay that excess equity to your creditors over a period of time.<\/p>\n Will you have to pay back everything in excess of $150,000? Well, no, the amount that you would repay would be further reduced by the fact that cost of sale, generally at least six-percent, would also be factored in.\u00a0\u00a0So If the house is worth $300,000 and you have $170,000 in equity, after factoring in the cost of sale, you would be let with roughly only $15,000 that you would have to pay back to all your unsecured creditors interest free over up to five years\u00a0\u00a0in order to eliminate all your debt and keep your home. Point is you get to keep the home and keep building equity.<\/p>\n Am I Going to Lose My Car if I File Bankruptcy?<\/i><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n No reason why you should ever have to lose a car in bankruptcy. If you have lived in Arizona for two years, you are current on payments and you have less than $6000 in equity in your car, there is no reason you should lose your car unless you want to give it up.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you have more than $6000 in equity. You still have two solutions. First, you can make a deal with the trustee to pay the unprotected amount to him to distribute to your creditors. So if your car is worth 10,000 and you owe $2000 on it, you would have $8000 in equity with only $6000 of it protected, you could make a deal with the trustee to make monthly payments to pay off some portion of the unprotected $2000 in order to keep your car.<\/p>\n