Can I keep my home and automobile?

In many cases you can retain your home and automobile in a chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding. You will lose your home or automobile in a chapter 7 if (1) you are behind in making payments on a loan secured by the home or automobile and can not reach a payment agreement with the creditor, or (2) the home or automobile has equity (I.E. a liquidation value in excess of the amount owed to creditors with liens against the property) in excess of what you are allowed to exempt.

If either of these two conditions exist, you might consider filing a chapter 13 petition, which allows you to develop a plan for repaying your creditors without necessarily liquidating assets.