{"id":272,"date":"2012-07-31T00:20:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/?p=272"},"modified":"2025-08-11T19:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:24:47","slug":"can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common questions we hear from our customers who are considering filing for bankruptcy is;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0If I file for bankruptcy can I keep my house? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it isn\u2019t a simple yes or no. The short answer is<em> sometimes<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Here we will look at the factors that determine whether or not your house can and should be saved.<\/p>\n<h3>Chapter 7 Bankruptcy:<\/h3>\n<p>When filing Chapter 7, the debtor may or may not be able to keep their house. This liquidates all of your assets to pay your creditors. Your home is included by federal law.<\/p>\n<p>The catch is that most states have their own form of \u201chomestead law\u201d that protects a portion of the equity of a debtor\u2019s home from the bankruptcy process.<\/p>\n<p>If a debtor has less equity than is protected by his state law, they should be able to keep their home as long as they keep making payments. Your home\u2019s equity exemption is determined by the homestead laws of which state you reside.<\/p>\n<h3>Chapter 13 Bankruptcy:<\/h3>\n<p>When filing Chapter 13, the debtor can generally keep their house as long as they continue to make the mortgage payment.\u00a0 If your equity in your home exceeds the amount protected by your local homestead laws, then Chapter 13 may be for you.<\/p>\n<p>You might be able to stretch every dollar to make that mortgage payment, but should you? For instance, if you owe creditor\u2019s more than your home is currently worth, your bankruptcy filing might be a good time to cut your losses and walk away.<\/p>\n<p>Do I Want To Keep My House When I File for Bankruptcy?<\/p>\n<p>There are other considerations which also determine your practical ability to keep your home. Are you caught up on payments? How much non-exempt equity do you actually have?\u00a0 When making the decision whether to try and keep your home or let it go you will want to speak to an attorney in your area who is knowledgeable about local bankruptcy laws.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, it is all a question of whether your house represents an asset or a financial hardship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common questions we hear from our customers who are considering filing for bankruptcy is; \u00a0If I file for bankruptcy can I keep my house? Unfortunately, it isn\u2019t a simple yes or no. The short answer is sometimes. Here we will look at the factors that determine whether or not your house &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[127,126,125],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bankruptcy","tag-can-i-keep-my-house-after-bankruptcy","tag-chapter-13-bankruptcy","tag-chapter-7-bankruptcy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy? - Better Call Dave - Bankrupt MN Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy? - Better Call Dave - Bankrupt MN Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most common questions we hear from our customers who are considering filing for bankruptcy is; \u00a0If I file for bankruptcy can I keep my house? Unfortunately, it isn\u2019t a simple yes or no. The short answer is sometimes. Here we will look at the factors that determine whether or not your house &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy?&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Better Call Dave - Bankrupt MN Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/davidkelllylawoffice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-31T00:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-11T19:24:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"DaveKelly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"DaveKelly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"DaveKelly\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a385963a920f92e1cf406fa921c98453\"},\"headline\":\"Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-31T00:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-11T19:24:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\"},\"wordCount\":360,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Can I keep my house after bankruptcy\",\"Chapter 13 Bankruptcy\",\"Chapter 7 Bankruptcy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"bankruptcy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/\",\"name\":\"Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy? 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Sometimes that seems like a long time, and other days I feel as if I just started. These days my practice is devoted entirely to counseling folks concerning their financial problems and representing them in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. One thing I don't do is credit repair. When asked about matters concerning credit scores, I like to say \\\"I'm a very good source of unreliable information about that.\\\" What I mean is that I hear a lot about it from my clients who often report back to me how they are doing after their bankruptcy is completed, sometimes even years later; but having heard some stories from a few people doesn't qualify me to give any advice. I spend a lot of time with my clients. I want to be sure we get it right. There are civil and criminal penalties for concealing or providing incorrect information in a bankruptcy care, and my goal is to keep myself and my clients as far away from problems like that as possible. You can find me in MInnetonka near I-394 and Hopkins crossroad. It's ten or fifteen minutes from downtown Minneapolis. You can see parts of Plymouth, Minnesota, Golden Valley, Minnesota and St. Louis Park, Minnesota from the high ground in front of my building. If you take a look at the map, you can see that most of St. Louis Park is closer to my office than many parts of Minnetonka.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.mn-bankruptcy.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/author\/davekelly\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy? - Better Call Dave - Bankrupt MN Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/can-i-keep-my-house-if-i-file-bankruptcy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can I Keep My House If I File Bankruptcy? - Better Call Dave - Bankrupt MN Blog","og_description":"One of the most common questions we hear from our customers who are considering filing for bankruptcy is; \u00a0If I file for bankruptcy can I keep my house? 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Sometimes that seems like a long time, and other days I feel as if I just started. These days my practice is devoted entirely to counseling folks concerning their financial problems and representing them in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. One thing I don't do is credit repair. When asked about matters concerning credit scores, I like to say \"I'm a very good source of unreliable information about that.\" What I mean is that I hear a lot about it from my clients who often report back to me how they are doing after their bankruptcy is completed, sometimes even years later; but having heard some stories from a few people doesn't qualify me to give any advice. I spend a lot of time with my clients. I want to be sure we get it right. There are civil and criminal penalties for concealing or providing incorrect information in a bankruptcy care, and my goal is to keep myself and my clients as far away from problems like that as possible. You can find me in MInnetonka near I-394 and Hopkins crossroad. It's ten or fifteen minutes from downtown Minneapolis. You can see parts of Plymouth, Minnesota, Golden Valley, Minnesota and St. Louis Park, Minnesota from the high ground in front of my building. If you take a look at the map, you can see that most of St. Louis Park is closer to my office than many parts of Minnetonka.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mn-bankruptcy.com"],"url":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/author\/davekelly\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6937,"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/6937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mn-bankruptcy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}