Answer: You will only lose the amount you have contributed to your RRSP in the 12 months prior to filing bankruptcy in Ontario.  Any amounts you have contributed prior to one year ago are not seized.

For more information, contact an Ontario bankruptcy trustee.

Answer: No, if the house is owned by your husband, and he has always owned the house, than your bankruptcy does not impact on his house.  More information can be found in this article on how bankruptcy affects your spouse.

In Ontario you are permitted to keep one motor vehicle worth up to $5,650, so if your van is old, and has no loans against, you would be permitted to keep it.

Answer: No, not always.  When you file for bankruptcy, you’ll be required to report your income and expenses to the trustee each month.  This income should include all sources of income earned during the bankruptcy period.  

The payments that you’ll be required to make to the trustee are dependent on the size of your family and the income you receive.  Essentially the rule is “the more you make, the more you have to pay”.  A useful guideline to these rules – called Surplus Income -can be found here.

Before you file for a bankruptcy, the trustee will inform you what assets you’re allowed to keep and which ones may vest with the trustee.  You can find more information about the assets you’re allowed to keep here.

Answer:  If you file for bankruptcy and your intention is to keep the car, you’ll most likely be able to do so as long as your account is up to date and you and the car loan company agree that you’ll continue making the payments to them.  You’d only include the car loan debt into the bankruptcy if you volunatrily wanted to surrender the vehcile back to that creditor and cease paying them.

For more information on how the bankruptcy process works, our advice would be to contact a local trustee in bankruptcy who’d be happy to explain your options to you in more detail.

Answer: The rule in Ontario is each person who goes bankrupt is permitted to keep one motor vehicle, if there are no liens or loans against it, worth up to $5,650. So, if your wife owns the car and you own the motorcycle, and each are worth less than $5,650, then yes, you could keep both vehicles in a bankruptcy.

However, if you (or your wife) own both vehicles, then only one vehicle is exempt.

Your Ontario bankruptcy trustee can provide more information.

Answer: Part of the trustee’s job is to turn your assets into cash for the creditors. If your property has negative equity, the trustee will not seize the house, because they can not turn it into cash. Assuming the three mortgage lenders agree, you could keep the house if you go bankrupt.

Practically, it may make more sense to surrender the house to the mortgage holders before you go bankrupt. By doing so any shortfall when the house is sold will be included in your bankruptcy. In most cases it is not prudent to go bankrupt and still have a huge amount of mortgage debt that will be difficult to repay. Your trustee can provide you with more information.

Answer: Yes, you can make arrangements with your trustee to pay the non-exempt portion of your vehicle over the period of the bankruptcy so that you can keep your vehicle.

Answer: If you go bankrupt anywhere in Canada, you are allowed to keep your RRSP, except for any contributions you made to it in the last 12 months. For example, if you have been contributing $100 per month to your RRSP for the last 36 months and it now has $3,600 in it, you would lose $1,200 of your RRSP when you file for bankruptcy.

Answer: Whether or not you can keep your house if you go bankrupt depends on the value of the house, and the amount owing on the mortgage. Here is an article that answers the question: What Happens To My House If I File Bankruptcy?

Thank you.

Answer: In most cases he will be allowed to continue making the payments on the car loan. One option would be for him to contact the bank now, before you go bankrupt, and ask to have your name taken off the loan. If the loan is entirely in his name, there should be no issues.

If the bank won’t remove your name, your husband should discuss it with the bank first, and ask them to confirm that he won’t lose the vehicle if you go bankrupt.