How to File Bankruptcy in Florida: Chapter 7 vs. 13 and Exemptions

To file bankruptcy in Florida, you choose between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, complete a pre-filing credit counseling briefing, prepare a detailed petition with schedules of your assets, debts, income, and expenses, and file it in the federal bankruptcy district where you’ve lived for most of the past 180 days. Florida requires you to use its state exemption system, which is unusually generous, and those exemption choices largely determine what you keep. After filing, you attend a short meeting with the trustee, finish a second financial education course, and receive a discharge — in about four months for Chapter 7, or after a three- to five-year repayment plan in Chapter 13.

Choosing Between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13

Chapter 7 is a liquidation. A court-appointed trustee reviews your assets, sells anything not covered by an exemption, and pays creditors from the proceeds. In most consumer cases, exemptions cover everything and nothing is sold. Chapter 7 typically wraps up in around four months.

Chapter 13 is a repayment plan. You keep your property and pay creditors over three or five years through a court-approved plan. If your household income is below Florida’s median for your size, the plan runs three years; above the median, five.¹ Chapter 13 tends to suit people with steady income who need to catch up on a mortgage or car loan, or whose income is too high to pass the Chapter 7 means test.

Chapter 13 has debt ceilings. For cases filed between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2028, secured debts cannot exceed $1,580,125 and unsecured debts cannot exceed $526,700. Above those limits, Chapter 13 isn’t available to you.

Do You Qualify to File

Anyone with a domicile, residence, or property in the United States can be a debtor.² You file in the Florida district where your residence sat for the greater part of the 180 days before filing.³ Florida has three districts: Northern, Middle, and Southern.

Every individual debtor must complete a credit counseling briefing from a U.S. Trustee-approved nonprofit within the 180 days before filing. The certificate goes in with your petition. You can take the briefing online, by phone, or in person, and approved agencies are listed on the U.S. Courts website.⁴

The Chapter 7 Means Test

To file Chapter 7, you must pass a means test on Official Form 122A-1 comparing your average monthly income over the six months before filing to Florida’s median for your household size.⁵ For cases filed on or after November 1, 2025, the Florida median incomes are:

One earner: $68,085
Household of two: $84,305
Household of three: $95,039
Household of four: $111,819

Add $11,100 for each additional member beyond four.⁶ Below the median, you pass. Above it, a second calculation on Form 122A-2 subtracts allowed expenses to see whether you have enough disposable income to fund a Chapter 13 plan instead. Failing the means test redirects you toward Chapter 13; it doesn’t shut you out of bankruptcy.

Repeat Filing Limits

You can’t get a new Chapter 7 discharge within eight years of a prior Chapter 7 discharge. After a Chapter 13 discharge, the wait for Chapter 7 is six years, shorter if your earlier plan paid unsecured creditors in full or paid at least 70 percent in a good-faith best-effort plan.⁷ Repeat filers also lose some of the automatic stay’s protection: if you had a case dismissed within the past year, the stay in the new case expires after 30 days unless the court finds good faith, and two or more dismissals in the preceding year means no stay at all without a court order.⁸

Documents to Gather Before You Start

Bankruptcy forms ask for a full financial picture. Pull these together first:

Your federal income tax return for the most recent tax year ending before your case began. The trustee must have it at least seven days before the 341 meeting. In Chapter 13, all required returns for the four years before filing must be current.⁹¹⁰
Six months of pay stubs or other income documentation for the means test.
An inventory of everything you own — bank accounts, vehicles, furniture, jewelry — at fair market value, meaning what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller.
A full creditor list with names, mailing addresses, account numbers, and balances.
Your monthly expenses: housing, utilities, food, transportation, insurance, and every recurring cost.

The petition itself is Official Form 101, available on the U.S. Courts website.¹¹ With it you file Schedules A through J covering real property, personal property, income, expenses, and executory contracts. Accuracy matters. Omitting an asset or a creditor can lead to dismissal or fraud allegations.

What Florida Lets You Keep

Florida requires state exemptions rather than the federal set, and they’re among the strongest in the country. Every exemption you claim goes on Schedule C, identifying the property, its value, and the Florida statute that protects it.¹² Property you forget to list can be seized by the trustee even if a statute would have protected it, so review Schedule C carefully.

Homestead

Florida’s homestead exemption, in Article X, Section 4 of the state constitution, protects your primary residence with no cap on value, so long as the property is no larger than half an acre inside a municipality or 160 acres outside one. Federal law adds one limit: if you acquired the homestead within 1,215 days (roughly three years and four months) before filing, the exemption is capped at $214,000 regardless of your equity.¹³ Owned the home longer than that? The cap doesn’t apply.

Other Key Exemptions

Wages: if you’re head of household, disposable earnings up to $750 per week are fully exempt.¹⁴
Personal property wildcard: up to $4,000 if you don’t claim homestead, dropping to $1,000 if you do.¹⁵
Retirement accounts: IRAs, 401(k)s, and other qualified plans are generally protected under federal and Florida law.
Life insurance and annuities: cash surrender values and annuity proceeds are protected under Chapter 222.

Filing the Petition

File in the district and division where you live. The filing fee is $338 for Chapter 7 and $313 for Chapter 13. If you can’t pay upfront, you can request installments on Official Form 103B, or apply for a fee waiver if your income falls below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Electronic filing through CM/ECF is generally limited to attorneys. Filing on your own, you’ll typically submit paperwork in person at the clerk’s office or by mail. Some Florida courts offer a self-representation portal for preparing and submitting the petition package online, with payment and signature pages handled separately.

The Automatic Stay Takes Effect Immediately

The moment the clerk receives your petition, the automatic stay halts most collection activity — lawsuits, wage garnishments, foreclosures, and creditor calls.⁸ It has limits, though. It does not stop criminal proceedings, child support or alimony collection, paternity or custody cases, or most tax audits. Domestic support can still be withheld from your income, and a government agency can still intercept your tax refund for overdue child support.

What Happens After You File

The court assigns a trustee to review your paperwork and, in Chapter 7, determine whether any non-exempt assets exist to distribute.

The 341 Meeting of Creditors

Between 21 and 40 days after filing, you attend the 341 meeting. Creditors rarely appear in routine consumer cases. The trustee asks you questions under oath about your finances and the accuracy of your schedules. Bring a government-issued photo ID, proof of your Social Security number, and your most recent tax return. If your paperwork is in order, the meeting usually lasts 10 to 15 minutes. If the trustee spots problems, the meeting can be continued to a later date.

The Financial Management Course

Before the court will issue a discharge, you must complete a second course, this one on personal financial management. It’s separate from the pre-filing credit counseling briefing. Skip it and your case closes without a discharge, leaving you responsible for every debt you tried to eliminate.⁴ File the certificate promptly.

Reaffirmation Agreements

If you want to keep property that secures a debt, such as a financed car, you may need to sign a reaffirmation agreement, which keeps you personally liable on that debt after discharge. Your Statement of Intention, filed with the petition, tells the court which secured debts you plan to reaffirm, and the signed agreement must be filed within 60 days of the 341 meeting. If you’re filing without an attorney, a judge will hold a hearing to decide whether the agreement is in your best interest; if your budget shows expenses exceeding income, the court presumes undue hardship. Many people keep their homes after Chapter 7 without reaffirming the mortgage, as long as they stay current on payments, keep insurance, and have enough exemption to cover their equity.

When the Discharge Arrives

In a typical Chapter 7 case, the discharge order comes about 60 days after the first scheduled 341 meeting, eliminating your personal liability on qualifying debts and permanently barring creditors from collecting them. In Chapter 13, discharge follows completion of all plan payments over three to five years.¹

Debts That Survive Bankruptcy

Not everything gets wiped out, and this is where filers most often feel blindsided.¹⁶

Child support and alimony are never dischargeable.
Federal and private student loans survive unless you file a separate adversary proceeding proving that repayment would impose undue hardship. Courts apply a strict test.
Income taxes can sometimes be discharged, but only if the return was due more than three years ago, was actually filed more than two years ago, and the tax was assessed more than 240 days before filing. Taxes from fraud or unfiled returns are never dischargeable.¹⁷
Debts from false pretenses, false representations, actual fraud, embezzlement, or larceny survive.
Debts for death or personal injury caused by driving while intoxicated cannot be discharged.
Court-ordered criminal restitution survives.
Debts you left off your schedules may survive if the creditor didn’t learn about the case in time to file a claim.

Map your debts against this list before filing. If most of what you owe sits in these categories, bankruptcy may cost time and money without giving you much relief.

One more warning that carries real teeth: concealing assets, lying under oath, or filing false documents is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison, and short of prosecution the court can deny your discharge outright.¹⁸

Rebuilding After Discharge

A Chapter 7 filing can stay on your credit report for up to ten years; Chapter 13 typically drops off after seven. The practical impact fades earlier. Many people see credit scores improve within a year or two of discharge, especially those who had heavy delinquencies before filing, because removing that debt often produces an immediate lift.

Mortgages have their own waiting periods. For an FHA-insured loan, the standard wait after a Chapter 7 discharge is two years. If you can document that the bankruptcy resulted from circumstances beyond your control, such as a medical emergency or job loss, and you’ve handled money responsibly since, some lenders will consider you after twelve months. During a Chapter 13, you may qualify for an FHA loan after twelve months of on-time plan payments, with bankruptcy court approval.

You aren’t required to hire a bankruptcy attorney, but the Florida exemption system rewards professional help, particularly if you have significant home equity or a mix of asset types. Attorney fees for consumer bankruptcy in Florida typically run about $1,000 to $3,500 for a straightforward Chapter 7 and higher for Chapter 13, where the fee can often be folded into the repayment plan.

1
United States Courts. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Basics
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1408 – Venue of Cases Under Title 11
4
United States Courts. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Courses
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Means Testing
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 521 – Debtors Duties
10
Internal Revenue Service. Declaring Bankruptcy
11
United States Courts. Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
12
United States Courts. Schedule C – The Property Claimed as Exempt
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions
14
Florida Senate. Florida Code 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment
15
Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Statute 222.25 – Other Individual Property of Natural Persons Exempt From Legal Process
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
17
Internal Revenue Service. Bankruptcy Frequently Asked Questions
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 152 – Concealment of Assets, False Oaths and Claims, Bribery