Cramdown on Vehicle Not Bought for Personal Use

 Posted on January 17, 2018 in Vehicle Loans

The 910-day condition for doing a vehicle debt cramdown don’t apply if the vehicle was not “acquired for the personal use of the debtor.”

The Cramdown Advantage

The last several blog posts have been about the advantages of Chapter 13 cramdown, especially the cramdown of vehicle loans. Cramdown can be an excellent way to keep your vehicle. It usually allows you to reduce the monthly payment as well as the total you pay on the debt. Often the payment reduction is significant. You can often save thousands of dollars compared to what you’d usually pay on the debt overall. Through cramdown you may be able to keep a car or truck that you couldn’t afford to otherwise.

Because of these advantages vehicle loan cramdown may be a reason to file a Chapter 13 case. It’s not available under Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy.”

The 910-Day Condition on “Personal Use” Purchases

As we said in a blog post last week, there is usually a timing condition you need to meet to do a vehicle loan cramdown. In most consumer bankruptcy situations you must have entered into the contract more than 910 days (about two and half years) before filing the Chapter 13 case. So if you bought and financed a vehicle more recently you wouldn’t be able to do a cramdown.

But that only applies when “the collateral for that debt consists of a motor vehicle... acquired for the personal use of the debtor.” (See the unnumbered “hanging paragraph” right after Section 1325(a)(9) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.) So if your vehicle was acquired for business use, or some other non-personal use, the 910-day condition does not apply. You could do a cramdown on the loan in a Chapter 13 case filed at any time.

An Example

Imagine that eighteen months ago you bought a truck for a business that’s in your name. You financed the entire $50,000 purchase. The truck is now worth $32,500.

Your business has just failed and you need to file bankruptcy. You need to keep the truck because you sold your other vehicle to try to keep the business going.

On the advice of your bankruptcy lawyer you are filing a Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” case. There are other reasons to do so having to do with income tax debts. But you also learn you can do a cramdown on this truck loan and save money. You can do so even though you’re still a year short of the 910 days (about two and half years) since getting the loan.

Again, that’s because that 910-day condition would only apply if the truck was bought for “personal use.” If it was clearly bought for the business, you can do a cramdown without waiting the 910 day from the purchase to the Chapter 13 filing. (Your lawyer will review the loan documents to make sure they don’t indicate the purchase was for personal use.)

As a result your truck loan would effectively be rewritten based on the $32,500 current truck value. You would very likely be able to reduce the monthly payment on the loan. You would also very likely be able to pay thousands of dollars less overall before you owned the truck free and clear. Finally, besides saving you money immediately and long-term, it may enable you to keep the vehicle when you could not afford to do so otherwise.