Thanks Monty, thats what I figured.

My apologies, I was inaccurate in what I was saying:

According to Yvonne Sutton of http://www.mnp.ca:

All creditors must be declared in a bankruptcy. So a complete list of creditors must be handed over to the bankruptcy trustee.

If a vehicle is secured, then there may be an arrangement whereby the individual may keep driving the vehicle.

Yvonne continued to say that: if a person applies for credit while not yet discharged from the bankruptcy, he/she must disclose the fact that he's not yet discharged.

Yvonne also mentioned that there are different levels of creditors: Example: there are preferred creditors such as landlords, alimony payments etc.

Bottom line: I thought that you could pick or choose which credit cards you declared in your bankruptcy. Yvonne Sutton has clearly explained that you must declare all of your debts to the best of your ability at the time you declare bankruptcy.

Hope that clears things up.

I would lose my home too?? My equity in my home is likely 100,000.00 but in order to access tt to pay my debt, wouldn't I have to sell it? No one would give me a loan at this point

ok... let me research this some more...
I interviewed a bankruptcy trustee from MNP in a podcast.
I'll ask her to clarify this.

I'm sure about what I'm talking about, however, it would be nice to get an authoritative answer.

I always thought the only way you would keep your car is; if it was used to make a living with it or if it did not have a black book value. The rules for bankruptcy in every province vary. I know you can keep your home now while filing for bankruptcy, but the equity part I don't believe applies in Nova Scotia.

Monty I'm confused.

My understanding of the bankruptcy process was that you loose total control of all your assets and liabilities to the Trustee and not much is under your control or choice to include/exclude.

Your reference to the car loan makes sense because the value of the car is almost always less then the loan amount so its a wash, why wouldnt you keep the car? Also provided you aren't discharged I know you can add debts that you discover along the way, for example I knew someone who forgot to add a timeshare debt and did it 8 months into the process.

I know you can also stay in your home as well for example provided you pay the equity to the trustee so your creditors receive that money...

In Ontario (2007 rules I think) for example, you may keep your car (if you own it outright) if it is worth less than $5,650, necessary and ordinary wearing apparel up to $5,650, certain tools up to $11,300 if required by your trade, up to $11,300 of furnishings and certain types of life insurance. Most of your other assets are available for seizure and may be lost including your home, and your investments (except RRSP's and pension plans in certain cases)

What items can you pick and choose to add when filing bankruptcy and are you suggesting I can file for bankruptcy and exclude an asset or liability from the process by choice?

ottawa_chap... to answer your question: technically... you can pick and choose what you want to add in your bankruptcy... which sounds kind of silly in some regards..

the only wrinkle is this: once you declare bankruptcy, your equifax and transunion account are flagged with a bankruptcy and your credit score will surely take a hit....

This will alert all creditors who will probably want to close your account anyways as you're a very high risk.

Monty,

Unfortunately, that didn't quite address the question I was hoping to have answered, oh well. But after your last response I'll add another question into the mix:

It would appear that (from your example) one could select which items to include in their bankruptcy up front; keep some of their debts (i/e: car in this case), then within a 9 month window if they felt they errored, opt to revert and include those initially excluded debts.

Is that the jist of your comment?

I know a young fellow who declared bankruptcy.. he didn't include his car loan in the bankruptcy... he was able to afford the payments .. so he kept the car.

It turned out that he later totalled the car, and was owing more than the car was worth on the insurance claim.. he then added the car into the bankruptcy, as he wasn't discharged yet.

Monty, it's interesting that you've indicated (in this example) one has the option of selecting which debts to declare in a bankruptcy. That said, if one had say 50% of their credit cards in arrears, but the other 50% with a $0.00 balance, would they be able to exclude those cards in good standing, and thus, retain them while going through the bankruptcy process?

Will admit that I haven't done much research on the bankruptcy process - only enough to know that it's a route I refuse to pursue.