One of the common misunderstandings between a Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 is that many people believe you can ‘keep things’ in a Ch.13 payment plan whereas in a Ch.7 you must surrender possessions such as a home or a car. This is most often untrue. Both Federal and State bankruptcy laws provide schedules of “exemptions”. Exemptions are values in real and personal property you can retain when filing bankruptcy and they are listed categorically, such as the value of your household furnishings, or jewelry, or even cash. Most Ch.7 filers do not have to surrender any personal possessions and most can keep their house and car(s). To determine whether you can keep your possessions or not it would be best to request a free consultation from us so we can determine what the consequences of filing for you would likely be.