How to File Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in Texas: Costs, Exemptions, and Plan

To file Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Texas, you complete a credit counseling course, file a petition and financial schedules with the federal bankruptcy court for the district where you live, propose a three-to-five-year repayment plan, and begin making payments to a trustee within 30 days. Your unsecured debts must be under $526,700 and your secured debts under $1,580,125 to qualify.¹ Texas exemptions are among the most generous in the country, which is a large part of why Chapter 13 works well here for homeowners trying to keep their property.

Who Can File in Texas

You need regular income, debts under the federal caps, and a Texas address you’ve held for the greater part of the last 180 days.² The state has four bankruptcy districts, Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western, and your petition goes to the one covering your home.

The debt caps, adjusted in April 2025, are $526,700 in unsecured debt and $1,580,125 in secured debt.¹ Self-employed people and sole proprietors qualify under the same rules.³ Debts above those numbers push you into Chapter 11 territory instead.

Credit Counseling and Paperwork Before You File

You must finish a credit counseling course from a U.S. Trustee-approved agency within 180 days before filing. Miss it and your case will be dismissed.⁴ The counselor reviews your finances and looks at whether anything short of bankruptcy would work.

Pull these together before you sit down to file:

Pay stubs covering the 60 days before filing
Federal tax returns for the two most recent years
Recent statements for every bank account
Vehicle titles and property records to back up the values on your schedules

The core filing is the Voluntary Petition for Individuals, Official Form 101, which collects your identifying information and the chapter you’re filing under.⁵ With it you file schedules listing every asset, every debt, and your monthly budget. The trustee uses those schedules to judge whether your plan is realistic.

Where to File and What It Costs

Your petition goes to the bankruptcy court in the federal district where you live. Attorneys file electronically; people representing themselves usually deliver paper documents to the courthouse. The court filing fee is $313, payable in installments if the court approves your application.⁶

Attorney fees in Texas Chapter 13 cases generally run from $2,500 to $5,000, depending on the district and complexity. Many Texas districts use a “no-look” or presumptive fee, a standard amount the court approves without hourly review. Those fees usually get folded into the plan payments rather than paid up front. The Chapter 13 trustee also takes a percentage of each plan payment for administering the case, capped at 10% by law and typically set between 6% and 8% in Texas districts.

How Long the Plan Will Run

Household income sets the length. The court compares your average monthly income over the six months before filing against the Texas median for a household your size.⁷ Below the median, the plan can be as short as three years. At or above it, the plan runs at least five.

For cases filed between November 2025 and March 2026, the Texas medians are:⁸

One earner: $65,123
Household of two: $84,491
Household of three: $96,728
Household of four: $114,938
Each additional person: add $11,100

These figures update periodically, so check the U.S. Trustee’s site for the numbers in effect on your filing date. Form B122C-1 walks through your income and allowed deductions to arrive at disposable income, which is what the plan pays each month.⁹

Texas Exemptions: What You Get to Keep

Texas has opted out of the federal exemption scheme, so filers here use Texas state exemptions rather than choosing between the two.¹⁰ That is a good thing here, because the Texas list is unusually protective.

Homestead

Texas protects your primary residence from creditors with no cap on the home’s dollar value.¹¹ A $150,000 home and a $1.5 million home get the same protection. The limits are on acreage: up to 10 acres in an urban area, and up to 200 acres for a family or 100 acres for a single adult in a rural area.¹² That unlimited-value homestead is why Texas filers can put plan payments toward actual debts instead of losing home equity to the estate.

Personal Property

Personal belongings have separate dollar caps: $50,000 for a single adult or $100,000 for a family.¹³ Those caps cover home furnishings, clothing, work tools, athletic equipment, one motor vehicle per licensed household member, and jewelry up to 25% of the total. You claim these on Schedule C of the filing.

The 730-Day Residency Rule

If you haven’t lived in Texas for at least 730 days (two years) before filing, federal law may require you to use the exemptions of the state where you lived during the 180 days before that window.¹⁰ If that calculation leaves you with no state’s exemptions, the federal list is the fallback. Recent movers get caught by this often, so check the math before assuming Texas rules apply.

What Happens After You File

The Automatic Stay Kicks In

Filing the petition triggers a federal injunction called the automatic stay. Creditors have to stop collections, wage garnishment, repossessions, and foreclosure actions immediately.¹⁴ Violations can bring court sanctions.

Your First Payment Is Due in 30 Days

Plan payments to the trustee start within 30 days of filing, before the plan is confirmed.¹⁵ The trustee holds those payments until confirmation, then distributes them to creditors. If the plan isn’t confirmed, you get back whatever wasn’t already owed. Don’t assume you have breathing room here.

The 341 Meeting of Creditors

Between 20 and 60 days after filing, you attend a meeting of creditors, called a 341 meeting.¹⁶ The trustee runs it, verifies your identity, and asks questions about your income, expenses, and plan under oath.¹⁷ Creditors rarely attend. No judge is present. Skipping the meeting can get your case dismissed.

The Confirmation Hearing

The confirmation hearing follows, no earlier than 20 days and no later than 45 days after the 341 meeting.¹⁸ The judge decides whether the plan meets legal requirements and whether any objections have merit. Unopposed plans often sail through. If the trustee or a creditor thinks you can pay more, expect to amend before approval.

What the Plan Has to Pay

Federal law dictates how categories of debt are treated, and misclassifying them is the fastest way to have a plan rejected.

Priority debts get paid in full through the plan. That covers back taxes, unpaid child support and alimony, and wages owed to employees.¹⁹ These aren’t negotiable without a specific creditor’s consent.

Mortgage arrears are where Chapter 13 does its heaviest lifting for Texas homeowners. You can’t rewrite the terms of a loan on your primary home, so the monthly payment and interest rate stay put. But you can cure missed payments over the life of the plan while continuing to make the regular mortgage payment directly to the lender.¹⁹

Car loans can sometimes be “crammed down” to the vehicle’s current market value, with the remainder treated as unsecured. There’s a catch: if you bought the car within 910 days before filing, cramdown isn’t available and you have to pay the full loan balance to keep it.⁷

General unsecured debts, credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans, are paid last from whatever disposable income remains. In many plans those creditors receive well under the full balance, and unpaid amounts are discharged at the end.

If You Miss Plan Payments

Falling behind is where most Chapter 13 cases fail. The trustee will ask the court to dismiss. You can fight the motion by showing the shortfall was temporary and you can catch up, and courts will sometimes let you restructure. If the judge decides you can’t afford the plan, the case is dismissed and debts revert to their original status, minus what the trustee already paid out.

Most dismissals are without prejudice, so you can refile once things change. A dismissal with prejudice, reserved for bad faith or abuse, blocks refiling for a period the judge sets. Converting to Chapter 7 is another option if you meet its eligibility rules, though a new trustee can liquidate non-exempt property to pay creditors.

Finishing the Plan and Getting a Discharge

Complete every payment the plan requires and the court discharges most remaining unpaid debt. Before the discharge issues, you have to finish a debtor education course (separate from the pre-filing counseling) and certify that you’re current on any domestic support obligations.²⁰

Some debts survive the discharge:

Child support and alimony
Recent tax debts that qualified as priority claims
Student loans, absent a separate showing of undue hardship
Criminal fines and restitution, including court-ordered restitution for willful injury
Long-term secured debts like a mortgage that extends past the plan period
Debts for death or personal injury caused by intoxicated driving

You also can’t receive a Chapter 13 discharge if you got one in a prior Chapter 13 case within the preceding two years.²⁰

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1408 – Venue of Cases Under Title 11
3
United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
4
United States Department of Justice. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Information
5
United States Courts. Official Form 101 – Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
6
United States Bankruptcy Court. Filing Fee Information
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1325 – Confirmation of Plan
8
United States Department of Justice. Median Family Income by State – November 2025
9
United States Courts. Chapter 13 Statement of Your Current Monthly Income and Calculation of Commitment Period
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions
11
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 41.001 – Interests in Land Exempt From Seizure
12
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 41.002 – Definition of Homestead
13
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 42.001 – Personal Property Exemption
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1326 – Payments
16
Legal Information Institute. 341 Meeting
17
United States Department of Justice. Section 341 Meeting of Creditors
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1324 – Confirmation Hearing
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1322 – Contents of Plan
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge