Am I screwed with my cars?

I recently had bad luck happen and my wife was out of work for 6 months due to a severe injury non work related. The hospital is suing her as of Friday for non payment of $500k in medical bills. I was out of work to take care of her for 2 months and lost my job. Everything got affected. My 7 old son got classified as ADHD with behavior issues last week by the school counselor. Anyway, I have no recourse now with piled up debt and will have to declare chapter 13 bankruptcy. My question is that I have 6 Ford fox body mustangs with two storage units full of parts offsite for the last 20 years. Will I lose my beloved cars and parts? I do not consider them valuable because I drive them plus most are project cars. I had these 10 years before I met my wife and I think I should be allowed to keep them but my wife says the courts won't care and will want anything sold off to pay back the debt. Anyone have any experience with with this? TIA.

My guess is the cars will need to be sold.

They should not factor in to a settlement. There's no reason for them to know you even have the parts. The cars maybe, just because they are registered to you. I had 3 cars registered to me when I looked in to Chapter 13 a few years ago and they were a non issue. Your bankruptcy lawyer will know all this stuff for sure.

Lotsa variables here, state laws, sleazy lawyers, Nick may be right but they can't seize what they can't find? (or you don't have)

I'll buy one for $10.

In reply to redeemer: BTW: Welcome! Great place to BS about anything if you feel the urge to blow off some steam . Good Luck.

Well, it would seem to me that if you owe a debt, you should do whatever you can personally to pay it. Then again, what can 6 Foxbodies in various conditions get you? Maybe 10k? That will hardly put a dent in what you owe...

Sorry to hear about your situation man, best of luck. The forum is here to help where we can!

School counselors classify way to many kids as ADHD. Before putting your kid on anything you should see a real specialist.

As for the bills,try to make a deal with the hospital, reduced bill and something small everyweek and make sure you stick to it.

I have heard most are happy to get small payments over time than to get pennies or less on the dollar.

My wife collapsed after getting hit in the head by a soccer goal AYSO refused to cover medical expenses, housing market collapsed and we had to short sell our house, my son is Autistic, I got fired at the job that was supposed to help us recover and I moved to the third most expensive area of the country to live. I went from a German car, Italian motorcycle, and Millennium Falcon with a house that was 2300 sq ft and looked like a doll house, to a 2 bed room apartment deciding if skipping lunch to pay bills will hurt your productivity enough to get a raise while trying to pay student loans you can do nothing with.

Sell cars, love your family, post here more.

lrrs wrote: School counselors classify way to many kids as ADHD. Before putting your kid on anything you should see a real specialist. As for the bills,try to make a deal with the hospital, reduced bill and something small everyweek and make sure you stick to it. I have heard most are happy to get small payments over time than to get pennies or less on the dollar.

You would need a doctor to prescribe anything for ADHD anyway, but that diagnosis is not the end of the world.

I'm sure the hospital would settle for less just because they are professional rapist to normal customers, err, I mean patients. I have great insurance and usually don't have to deal with it, but a recent billing error brought light to the practice. I had an MRI last year and paid my $50 copay at the visit. Months later I got a bill for an additional $2K for the imaging. I called my insurance and they put me in to a 3 way call with the imaging company. That's when I found out that my insurance actually paid them in full, but negotiated down to $400. So the insurance company pays $400 for the exact same procedure that would have cost me $2000.
If you could get them down to the 20% of the bill you would probably pay less than if you file for bankruptcy on the same debt.

This is probably at least legally questionable, but maybe sell those "old junk cars" to a friend for a few hundred bucks? Personally, I wouldn't feel any moral obligation to pay back ludicrous medical debt.

Definitely varies by state-- for example, Kansas allowed $20,000, but Iowa only allows for the protection of $7000 in automobile equity.

For additional research, google "[your state] bankruptcy automobile exemption"

thats rough, but i need a parts car.

The hospital is suing her as of Friday for non payment of $500k in medical bills.

And this is why I cant ever move back to the States. I thought Obama Care took care of this little inconvenience?

As to the car parts, doubtful the trustee will want anything to do with them. They will search for cars, but if they are beaters, they wont much bother as the net value will be negative once they are done selling them.

Another reason for universal health care. Really sorry about you shiny happy person boss too. Really consult your attorney. Old fox bodies should be able to pass off as mainly junk. Why 13 and not 7?

We did 13 around nine years ago. Bought a home after we were told "it's a buyers market, home values will never go this low again." HA!

AFAIK the rules have changed since then, but they do look at your assets. As already stated a lawyer will know all this. Don't be surprised if they ask for money up front. I can't remember off hand what the total fees were then but I could look it up.

And yes, call the provider about the medical bills. They will work with you.

I only know what I have been told.. but the courts are really funny when it comes to vehicles. If I was living aboard a boat and it was my only residence, I would have to sell it during bankruptcy, because the courts do not recognize that vehicles can be homes.. they are considered "luxuries"

Hospitals will try to work with you if you try. Granted it's been a while, but my biirth was ... complicated nd expensive even by todays standards. They were sent $10 a month, every month. When I was 7, and it was maybe 20% paid off, they called and said not to worry about the rest just because we made the consistant payment.

It really is a huge scam, the whole hospital pricing thing, so talking to a good medical field attorney could probably get you far enough to get them off your ass at least.

As mentioned about the silly pricing schemes hospitals use, they also normally have significant discounts based on the federal poverty level (and up to as much as 400% of the FPL can get discounts).

With no jobs, you should score quite a bit below the federal poverty level currently, and that will earn you a huge discount at most hospitals.

Hospitals employ 'financial counselors'. They all do. Go talk to one.

Robbie wrote: As mentioned about the silly pricing schemes hospitals use, they also normally have significant discounts based on the federal poverty level (and up to as much as 400% of the FPL can get discounts). With no jobs, you should score quite a bit below the federal poverty level currently, and that will earn you a huge discount at most hospitals. Hospitals employ 'financial counselors'. They all do. Go talk to one.

Just wanted to second this. Situations like this are a huge sore spot with the Department of Health and Human Services right now, so if you don't get anywhere with a financial counselor at the hospital contact these guys: http://www.hhs.gov/about/contact-us/index.html

Sorry to hear about your troubles, and I hope things get better soon.

I found out that medical specialist/hospitals will typically overcharge, especially for insurance and settle for what insurance will pay. Most insurances coverage is below charge rates so medical field raises charge rates and insurance payments go up to what the medical specialists wanted in the first place.

As stated, Lawyer.

This is a LONG article that was in Time magazine a few years ago, detailing just how insane hospital and doctor pricing is, especially for those without insurance. It might give you some ideas to pursue.

Regardless, sorry to hear about your situation.

http://www.uta.edu/faculty/story/2311/Misc/2013,2,26,MedicalCostsDemandAndGreed.pdf

The irony here is that the fees for non-insured individual are inflated so as to cover the delinquency from those that have to file bankruptcy due to the devestating cost of trauma care.

Sadly, there is no way that the USA could ever have universal health coverage. That ship has sailed long time ago.

I would try as hard as possible to pay as little as possible for as long as possible and not give up anything. Our medical system in unjust and I will consider you a patriot for NOT paying.

Please note: They are suing you for non-payment. This is a problem, because it can destroy your credit (as will a bankruptcy).

This means you didn't make a payment (duh). But you SHOULD have made a PARTIAL payment ON TIME, every time, no matter how small. Even if it was $10 per month, it would have shown up as a payment.

I understand the pricing is absurd. I understand it is frustrating. But you received services, and did not attempt to pay for them. Your respect and honor is worth more than your pile of crappy old Mustang parts.

You are now in a pickle. Yes, lawyers can help, yes, hospitals will negotiate, yes their pricing is way out if line. But you would not be in this situation if you had made on time partial payments.

In the future, don't worry so much about the big number you can't handle. Concentrate on doing your best, and doing the right thing.