The Statement of Intention: Keep or Surrender Secured Property

If you're filing Chapter 7 and you owe money on a car, furniture, or a house, one form decides what happens to that property — and it comes with a deadline you cannot afford to miss. It's called the Statement of Intention (Official Form 108). For each item of property that secures a debt, you have to tell the court, the trustee, and the lender which of three things you plan to do: surrender it, redeem it for its current value, or reaffirm the loan and keep paying. Miss the deadline, and for personal property like a car, the law can automatically end the automatic stay's protection — meaning the lender may be free to repossess before your case is even over.

This isn't a form to set aside and deal with later. It's due early in your case, and what you check on it (and then actually follow through on) determines whether you keep your car, your house, or lose the protection the bankruptcy filing was supposed to give you.

What the Statement of Intention actually is

When you file an individual Chapter 7 case and you have debts secured by property — a car loan, a mortgage, financed furniture or appliances — or you're leasing personal property under a lease that hasn't expired, federal law (11 U.S.C. § 521(a)(2)) requires you to file a Statement of Intention. On Official Form 108, for each secured debt or lease you list, you check one box describing what you intend to do:

• Surrender the property — give it back to the lender, and let the underlying debt be handled through your discharge like your other qualifying debts.
• Redeem the property — keep it by paying the lender its current replacement value in a single lump sum, under 11 U.S.C. § 722, instead of the full loan balance. See our fuller explainer on redemption in Chapter 7.
• Reaffirm the debt — sign a new agreement, filed with the court under 11 U.S.C. § 524(c), promising to stay personally liable and keep making payments in exchange for keeping the collateral. Read more in our guide to reaffirmation agreements before you sign anything.

Some filers also see a fourth, informal path in practice: "retain and pay" (sometimes called a ride-through) — simply continuing to make the regular loan payments without signing a reaffirmation agreement or redeeming. Whether a lender or a particular court will accept this without objection varies a great deal by where you live and who your creditor is. Don't assume it's available to you; ask your attorney or the trustee's office about local practice before you count on it.

The form also asks about leased personal property — for example, a leased car — where your choice is generally to assume the lease (keep it, continuing the payments) or reject it (give it back).

The deadlines — flag these now

This is the part of the process that trips people up, because the timeline moves fast relative to how overwhelming the rest of a bankruptcy filing already feels:

• Filing deadline: within 30 days after you file your bankruptcy petition, or by the date first set for your meeting of creditors (the § 341 meeting) — whichever is earlier. You must file the Statement of Intention with the court and also send copies to the creditors and lessors named on it. A court can extend this deadline for cause, but you have to ask before it runs out, not after.
• Performance deadline: generally within 30 days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors. Checking a box isn't enough — you then have to actually do what you said: hand over the keys if you're surrendering, get the redemption payment or financing arranged, or get a reaffirmation agreement signed and filed with the court.

Both deadlines run from early events in your case, so in practice you often have only a few weeks total to decide, declare, and act. This is not a deadline to leave until the last minute.

What happens if you miss it

For personal property — a car, a truck, financed furniture or electronics, anything other than real estate — federal law (11 U.S.C. § 362(h)) provides that the automatic stay automatically terminates as to that specific item if you fail to timely file the Statement of Intention, or fail to timely carry out what you said you'd do. Once the stay ends for that property, the lender is generally free to repossess it without asking the court's permission first, and the property also stops being treated as part of the bankruptcy estate. There is a narrow exception: the trustee can file a motion, before your deadline runs out, arguing the property is of "consequential value or benefit" to the estate — but that's the trustee's call to make on the estate's behalf, not a protection you can count on for yourself.

The rule is different for real property, like your house. Section 362(h)'s automatic termination is written for personal property, not real estate — so missing the deadline on a mortgage doesn't, by itself, automatically end the stay on your home the way it can for a car. That's not license to ignore the deadline, though: a lender can still separately ask the court for relief from the stay, and missed paperwork tends to create confusion with your servicer and trustee. Treat every deadline on the form as firm, whatever the property. See our guides to keeping your house in Chapter 7 and keeping your car in Chapter 7 for the property-specific details.

Why this matters even if you plan to keep everything

It's tempting to think the Statement of Intention only matters if you're surrendering something. It doesn't. Even if you fully intend to keep your car and reaffirm the loan, you still have to file the form on time and then actually get the reaffirmation agreement signed and filed with the court within the applicable window. A late reaffirmation agreement can simply not take effect — leaving the debt discharged instead (not what you and the lender agreed to) or, depending on the lender, leaving you in a dispute over the vehicle. Filing on time protects you no matter which box you check.

Choosing what to check

There's no universally "right" answer. Surrender tends to fit when the payment doesn't work in your post-bankruptcy budget or the loan balance is far above what the property is worth. Redemption can be strong when the property (usually a car) has depreciated well below the loan balance and you can access a lump sum. Reaffirmation tends to fit when the payment is genuinely affordable, you're current or close to it, and keeping this specific item matters enough to accept the risk that the debt survives bankruptcy — meaning a possible deficiency if you default later. Retain-and-pay, where your court and lender allow it, can offer reaffirmation's practical benefit without giving up the discharge's protection — but confirm it's actually available before relying on it. A bankruptcy attorney can run these trade-offs against your actual numbers, which a generic article can't do for you.

What to do

1. List every secured debt and unexpired lease as soon as you're preparing to file — car loans, furniture or appliance financing, a mortgage, anything with collateral.
2. Decide, ideally with an attorney, what you want to do with each item before the clock starts: surrender, redeem, reaffirm, or (where realistically available) retain and pay.
3. File the Statement of Intention on time — within 30 days of your petition date or by your first 341 meeting date, whichever is earlier — and send copies to the listed creditors and lessors.
4. Follow through within the performance window (generally about 30 days after the first meeting of creditors): actually surrender the item, complete the redemption, or get a signed reaffirmation agreement filed with the court.
5. Don't sign a reaffirmation agreement at a dealership counter or over the phone without your attorney reviewing it — it has to go through the court, with a required disclosure statement about your income and expenses.
6. If you're unsure about a deadline in your specific case, check your case docket, call the clerk's office, or confirm current forms and procedures at uscourts.gov — and don't rely on a deadline you half-remember from a friend's case.

A word of caution

People searching for help with a car or house payment in bankruptcy are a common target for for-profit "debt relief" and debt-settlement companies that charge large upfront fees and often make things worse, and for non-attorney "bankruptcy petition preparers" who are legally barred from advising you on decisions like whether to surrender, redeem, or reaffirm — deciding among those options is a legal judgment call, not a form-typing task. A licensed bankruptcy attorney, a legal aid office, a law-school bankruptcy clinic, or your court's self-help center can help you weigh the choice for free or low cost. If you still need the credit counseling required before filing, use an agency approved by the U.S. Trustee Program, listed at justice.gov/ust. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also publishes free guidance on spotting debt-relief scams.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The Statement of Intention involves hard deadlines and consequences that vary by property type and by court — talk to a qualified bankruptcy attorney, legal aid office, or your court's self-help center before you file, and be wary of any company that wants an upfront fee to "handle" this for you.