Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Florida: Eligibility, Exemptions, and Filing

Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Florida is a court-supervised liquidation that erases most unsecured debts in about three to four months, and thanks to Florida’s generous exemptions, most filers actually keep everything they own. A court-appointed trustee reviews your assets, sells anything not protected by state exemption laws, and distributes the proceeds to creditors. Once the court enters a discharge order, creditors are permanently barred from trying to collect on the wiped-out debts.¹ In practice, most Florida Chapter 7 cases are “no-asset” cases where exemptions cover everything the filer has.

Who Can File in Florida

Three gatekeeping rules decide whether Chapter 7 is available to you: where you live, how much you earn, and when you last received a bankruptcy discharge.

Residency and Which Exemptions Apply

You file in one of Florida’s three federal bankruptcy districts — Northern, Middle, or Southern — if you’ve lived in that district for the greater part of the 180 days before filing.² A different rule controls which state’s exemptions you can claim: you must have been domiciled in Florida for at least 730 days (roughly two years) before filing to use Florida’s. If you haven’t lived in a single state that long, you use the exemptions of the state where you lived for the majority of the 180 days before that 730-day window.³ This matters. Florida’s exemptions are what make the state attractive for filing, and a recent move can mean you don’t get to use them yet.

The Means Test

The means test compares your household income against Florida’s median. “Income” is your average monthly income from all sources over the six calendar months before you file, not just wages.⁴ Annualize that figure and compare it to the Florida median for your household size. As of April 2026, the medians are:⁵

One earner: $69,876
Two-person household: $86,523
Three-person household: $97,540
Four-person household: $114,761

If you fall below the median, you pass and can proceed. Above the median, you move to a second calculation that subtracts IRS-standardized living expenses to see how much disposable income you have left. If that number shows you could repay a certain threshold of your unsecured debts over five years, the court presumes the filing is abusive and will likely push you toward Chapter 13 instead.⁶

The Eight-Year Rule

You cannot receive a Chapter 7 discharge if you already received one in a case filed within the past eight years.⁷ The clock runs from the filing date of the earlier case, not the discharge date. If your prior discharge was under Chapter 13, the wait is six years from the prior filing date, with exceptions if you paid back all unsecured claims or at least 70% under a good-faith plan.

What You Get to Keep

Florida has opted out of the federal exemption scheme, so state-defined protections control what the trustee can and cannot sell.⁸ The state’s exemptions are among the most generous in the country, especially for homeowners.

The Homestead Exemption

Florida’s headline protection is unlimited equity in your primary residence, provided the property sits on no more than half an acre inside a municipality or 160 acres in an unincorporated area.⁹ A homeowner with $500,000 in equity on a qualifying property can protect every dollar of it.

Newer residents face one important limit. If you acquired the property within 1,215 days before filing (about three years and four months), federal law caps the equity you can protect at an amount that adjusts periodically for inflation.³ Buy earlier than that, and the full unlimited exemption is yours.

Vehicles, Personal Property, and the Wildcard

The Florida Constitution protects up to $1,000 in personal property for any individual.⁹ A separate statute protects up to $5,000 of equity in a single motor vehicle.¹⁰ If you owe $15,000 on a car worth $18,000, your $3,000 in equity is fully covered.

Filers who don’t claim the homestead exemption unlock a wildcard exemption worth up to $4,000 in any personal property they choose. Stacked on the vehicle exemption, that produces $9,000 of combined protection for a car.¹⁰ The wildcard does not apply to child support or spousal support debts.

Retirement Accounts and Wages

Retirement accounts that qualify for tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code are fully exempt with no dollar limit. That covers 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth IRAs, 403(b) plans, and similar accounts.¹¹ Social Security, disability payments, unemployment compensation, and veterans’ benefits are also protected.

Wage protection is strong for a head of household, meaning anyone who provides more than half the support for a child or other dependent. Weekly disposable earnings of $750 or less are completely exempt from garnishment. Earnings above that can only be garnished if you’ve signed a written waiver meeting specific statutory requirements.¹² Exempt wages stay protected for six months after deposit into a bank account, as long as they can be traced.

Tenancy by the Entireties

Married couples have an additional layer of protection. Property held as tenants by the entireties, which is the default for real property titled jointly by spouses, is exempt from the individual debts of either spouse. Only joint debts of both spouses can reach entireties property. That protection extends to personal property, including bank accounts titled in both names. When only one spouse files, entireties property generally stays out of the trustee’s reach.

Debts Chapter 7 Won’t Erase

Chapter 7 wipes out most unsecured debts, but federal law carves out categories that survive no matter what. This matters up front, because people sometimes file expecting a clean slate and discover their largest obligation is non-dischargeable.¹³

Child support and alimony. All domestic support obligations survive, and the automatic stay doesn’t even pause wage garnishment for current child support.
Most tax debts. Recent income taxes cannot be discharged. Older tax debts sometimes can, if the return was due more than three years ago, was filed more than two years ago, and the tax was assessed more than 240 days ago. Taxes tied to fraud or willful evasion are never dischargeable.
Student loans. Federal and private student loans survive unless you file a separate lawsuit within the bankruptcy case and prove that repayment would impose an “undue hardship.”¹⁴
Debts from fraud or intentional harm. Money obtained through false pretenses, embezzlement, or larceny is non-dischargeable, as is any debt from willful and malicious injury to another person or their property.
Government fines and penalties, including criminal restitution.
DUI-related debts for death or personal injury caused by driving while intoxicated.
Recent luxury purchases. Consumer debts over $500 for luxury goods charged within 90 days of filing are presumed non-dischargeable, and cash advances over $750 taken within 70 days of filing are treated the same way.

Debts you accidentally leave off your paperwork can also survive if the creditor didn’t receive notice in time to file a claim. Complete schedules aren’t just a formality; they decide which debts get discharged.

What Happens to Your House and Car

Chapter 7 discharges your personal liability on a debt, but it doesn’t erase a lien. If you have a car loan or mortgage, the creditor can still repossess or foreclose after discharge unless you act. You have three options: surrender the property, reaffirm the debt, or redeem the property.

Reaffirmation

A reaffirmation agreement is a new contract in which you voluntarily stay personally liable on a debt that would otherwise be discharged. It’s most common with car loans. If you reaffirm and later default, the creditor can repossess the vehicle and pursue you for any remaining balance, just as if you’d never filed.¹⁵ Agreements must be filed within 60 days after the first date set for the creditors’ meeting. You can rescind within 60 days after the agreement is filed or until the discharge is entered, whichever is later.

If you have an attorney, they must certify that the agreement won’t create undue hardship and that you understand it. If you’re representing yourself, a judge holds a hearing to decide whether the agreement is in your best interest and whether you can afford the payments. Judges sometimes refuse to approve agreements they view as a bad deal for the debtor. Reaffirmation does not apply to mortgage debts secured by real property; those are handled differently by the court.¹⁶

Redemption

Redemption lets you keep personal property by paying the creditor its current fair market value in one lump sum, even if you owe more than that. If your car has a $12,000 loan balance but is only worth $7,000, you can redeem it for $7,000. The property must be tangible personal property used primarily for personal or household purposes, and it must be either exempt or abandoned by the trustee.¹⁷ The obstacle is the lump-sum requirement, though some specialty lenders offer redemption financing.

The Filing Process Step by Step

Before You File

Before you can file, you must complete a credit counseling course from an agency approved by the U.S. Trustee Program.¹⁸ The certificate is valid for 180 days and must be filed with your petition.¹⁹ Most approved agencies offer the course online for around $20.

The petition itself requires detailed disclosure through official schedules:²⁰

Schedules A/B: all real and personal property, with estimated values.
Schedule C: the specific exemptions you claim for each asset.
Schedule D: creditors with liens on your property.
Schedule E/F: unsecured creditors, split between priority debts (like taxes and support) and general debts.
Schedules I and J: current monthly income and expenses.

You also file a Statement of Financial Affairs covering income for the past two years, any property transfers, lawsuits, and prior bankruptcies. Pay stubs from the 60 days before filing and your most recent federal tax return go to the trustee. Every dollar figure needs to be accurate. Underreporting assets or hiding transfers is where filers get in real trouble, because the trustee is trained to catch it and the consequences run from denial of discharge to criminal fraud charges.

Filing and the Automatic Stay

The case begins when you file the petition and schedules with the clerk of the bankruptcy court in your district. The filing fee is $338.²¹ If you can’t pay it, you can request installments or apply for a fee waiver if your income is below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines.

The moment you file, an automatic stay takes effect. It’s an immediate, court-ordered freeze on nearly all collection activity: creditors must stop calling, lawsuits pause, wage garnishments halt, and foreclosures are temporarily stayed.²² The stay does not stop criminal proceedings, and it doesn’t block collection of child support from non-estate property or tax audits. If a prior bankruptcy case was dismissed within the past year, the stay only lasts 30 days unless you convince the court to extend it.

The Creditors’ Meeting

A court-appointed trustee schedules a meeting of creditors (the “341 meeting”) between 21 and 60 days after filing. Despite the name, creditors rarely show up. The trustee verifies your identity, puts you under oath, and asks straightforward questions about your schedules: Did you list all your assets? Have you transferred property recently? Any lawsuits pending? The meeting usually takes under ten minutes when the paperwork is in order.

The trustee also investigates whether you transferred assets for less than fair value before filing. Federal law allows a claw-back of transfers made within two years of filing,³ and Florida’s fraudulent transfer statute extends the lookback to four years for transfers made to defraud creditors.²³ Giving a car to a relative or moving money into someone else’s account before filing is exactly what trustees look for.

The Second Course and Discharge

After filing but before you can receive a discharge, you must complete a second course, this one on personal financial management. If you don’t file the certificate of completion (Official Form 423) within 60 days after the first creditors’ meeting date, the court will close your case without granting a discharge.⁷ Reopening a case closed for this reason costs another fee. It’s an easy requirement to satisfy, and a surprisingly common reason cases go sideways.

Assuming no creditor or the trustee files an objection, the court enters a discharge order roughly 60 days after the creditors’ meeting. The discharge permanently bars any collection action on the covered debts, including calls, letters, and lawsuits.¹ Start to finish, a straightforward case takes about three to four months.

Costs and Credit Afterward

Attorney fees for a Chapter 7 case in Florida generally run $1,000 to $3,500 depending on complexity and the attorney’s experience. Add the $338 filing fee and roughly $20 per required course, and total out-of-pocket costs for most filers land between $1,400 and $4,000. Some attorneys offer payment plans, and filing without an attorney is legally permitted, though the means test and exemption strategy make professional help worthwhile for most people.

A Chapter 7 stays on your credit report for ten years from the filing date.²⁴ Most people see scores start recovering within a year or two as they rebuild payment history, and the bankruptcy’s weight in scoring models decreases over time.

For homeownership, FHA-insured mortgages carry a two-year wait from the discharge date, and during those two years you need to re-establish credit or show that you’ve avoided new obligations. FHA guidelines allow applications after 12 months in limited circumstances involving hardship beyond your control.²⁵ Conventional loans typically require a four-year wait, and VA loans require two years.

1
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1408 – Venue of Cases Under Title 11
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 522 – Exemptions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 101 – Definitions
5
U.S. Trustee Program. Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 727 – Discharge
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 222.20 – Nonavailability of Federal Bankruptcy Exemptions
9
FindLaw. Florida Constitution Art. X, Section 4 – Homestead Exemptions
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 222.25 – Other Individual Property of Natural Persons Exempt From Legal Process
11
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 222.21 – Exemption of Pension Money and Certain Tax-Exempt Funds or Accounts From Legal Process
12
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
14
Federal Student Aid. Discharge in Bankruptcy
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 524 – Effect of Discharge
16
United States Bankruptcy Court. Reaffirmation Agreements
17
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 722 – Redemption
18
United States Department of Justice. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Information
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
20
United States Courts. Bankruptcy Forms
21
United States Bankruptcy Court. Clerk’s Summary of Fees
22
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay
23
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 726.110 – Extinguishment of Cause of Action
24
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
25
HUD. How Does a Bankruptcy Affect a Borrowers Eligibility for an FHA Mortgage