The homestead exemption serves as a critical financial protection for homeowners facing bankruptcy by shielding a portion of their home equity from creditors. Each year, this exemption amount is adjusted based on the countywide median sale price of a single-family home in the previous calendar year. For 2025, the homestead exemption limits have been updated […]
Homeowners Association Fees and Costs Not Listed in Recorded Notice are Dischargeable Debts
If you are dealing with past due homeowner’s association fees and costs, bankruptcy may be able to help you reduce the amount that is required to be paid back to the homeowner’s association. In bankruptcy, when the homeowner’s association has followed the procedural and notice requirements to record a Notice of Assessment lien then the […]
California Authorizes Retain And Pay For Automobiles In Bankruptcy
NEW PROTECTION FOR DEBTORS WITH VEHICLE LOANS Recent California law changes have given all Debtors who file bankruptcy in California the option to retain and pay on their vehicle loans in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Prior to the changes in the law that took effect in 2023, when you filed for bankruptcy protection you had […]
Increased Car Exemption of $7500 Allows You to Protect More Equity in Your Vehicle
Increased Protection for Your Car in Bankruptcy. Changes that went into effect at the beginning of 2023 increase the vehicle exemption amount available in California. Both Section 703.140 and Section 704.010 were amended to increase the exemptions available for motor vehicles. The amount available for vehicles was increased to $7500 under both sections. Changes to […]
In California, Filing Bankruptcy May Allow You to Regain Your Home After the Foreclosure Sale
California’s New Foreclosure Law On January 1, 2021 new foreclosure laws went into effect that altered the foreclosure process in California. Under Senate Bill 1079 signed into law on September 28, 2020, a property that is a one-to-four-unit residential dwellings is subject to the new foreclosure rules. The law added Section 2924m which states that […]
New Guidelines Make It Easier To Discharge Student Loan Debt in Bankruptcy
Discharging Student Loans Just Got Easier The Biden Administration recently announced new guidance for the Department of Justice for handling Federal Student Loans in Bankruptcy. This guidance will likely make it easier for Debtors in bankruptcy to discharge federal student loans. Prior to this guidance being issued the guidelines for meeting the requirements to discharge […]
Can My Bank Take My Money Without Permission?
The short answer is YES under the right of setoff if you owe that same bank or credit union on a credit card or loan. When you have a savings or checking account with a bank or credit union it is very common to apply for credit cards or loans with that same financial institution […]
How Can a Creditor Levy Your Bank Account in California
It’s true: once a creditor gets a judgment against you it can take money out or your bank, credit union, or other financial institution account to pay that judgment. This blog post gets into what exactly a judgment creditor can do to levy your accounts, and what you can do to stop it. HOW CAN […]
What Happens When You Don’t Respond to a California Collection Lawsuit?
Getting lawsuit papers can be scary. A process server, or sometimes a sheriff’s deputy, may show up at the door of your home and insist on personally handing you the papers. Or this might happen at your place of work or business. It could even happen as you’re simply walking down the street. (See Service […]
Bankruptcy Limits For California Homestead Exemption
At the beginning of this year (2021) the amount of home equity a California homeowner can protect from his or her creditors greatly increased. See our blog post, Huge Increase in California Homestead Exemption, about this. This new greater protection of home equity makes understanding the federal Bankruptcy Code’s limitations on homestead exemptions all the […]
California’s Homestead Exemption- Are You Required to Reside in the Home?
The California Homestead Exemption’s Requirements of Residing in the Home and Intending to Continue Doing So The California homestead exemption amount’s huge increase at the beginning of 2021 has made it all the more important to understand when the exemption does apply to a home and when it does not. A number of practical issues […]
The Truth about Bankruptcy and Your Credit Report
How does filing bankruptcy affect your credit report? To answer this we need to understand 1) some facts and 2) how those facts apply to your life. To give you an idea where this is going, the truth is that it depends on your situation. But if you’re like many people with challenging finances, filing […]