Bankruptcy Appraisals in Georgia After the 2026 Homestead Change

Whether a Georgia bankruptcy case needs a real estate appraisal depends on the chapter and on what is actually in dispute. Many cases never need one. Where the value of a home or other real estate decides who gets paid, or whether a lien survives, the number gets scrutinized, and an unsupported estimate is the weakest thing to be holding.

This post explains where value drives the outcome. It is not legal advice. Your bankruptcy attorney decides the strategy and confirms the valuation date; my job is the value.

Key Takeaways

• Georgia's homestead exemption rose on July 1, 2026. It is now $50,000 per debtor, or $100,000 when the home is titled in one of two spouses who is a debtor and it is the primary residence of both. The old figures were $21,500 and $43,000.
• Georgia debtors use Georgia's exemptions. O.C.G.A. 44-13-100(b) bars Georgia-domiciled individual debtors from the federal exemption list.
• Chapter 7 turns on equity. If value, less liens and the exemption, leaves equity, the trustee has a reason to look closely at the number.
• Chapter 13 has two valuation tests. The liquidation test, measured as of the plan's effective date, and the lien strip, which only works if a junior lien is wholly unsecured.
• Judicial liens can be avoided in either chapter. Under 11 U.S.C. 522(f), the test is a formula, and value is one of its inputs.

The Georgia homestead exemption after July 1, 2026

Georgia has opted out of the federal bankruptcy exemptions. Under O.C.G.A. 44-13-100(b), an individual debtor whose domicile is in Georgia may not use 11 U.S.C. 522(d) and exempts property under Georgia law instead.

House Bill 1024 amended O.C.G.A. 44-13-100(a)(1), effective July 1, 2026. The exemption for the debtor's interest in property the debtor or a dependent uses as a residence is now:

• $50,000 for a debtor, up from $21,500.
• $100,000 when title is in one of two spouses who is a debtor and the property is the primary residence of both spouses, up from $43,000.

Beginning July 1, 2031, both amounts adjust each year for inflation.

The date matters. Under 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3)(A), state exemptions are those under the state law applicable on the date the petition is filed. Which figure governs a given case, and whether Georgia's exemptions apply at all to a debtor who moved recently, are questions for your attorney.

What Schedule A/B asks for

Official Form 106A/B asks, for each property, the current value of the entire property and the current value of the portion you own. It tells you not to deduct secured claims or exemptions from those figures. The form does not require an appraisal. Whether a value from other sources is enough depends on whether anyone is likely to question it.

Chapter 7: is there equity the trustee could reach?

A Chapter 7 trustee's first duty under 11 U.S.C. 704(a)(1) is to collect and reduce to money the property of the estate. For a home, the practical question is whether selling it would produce money for creditors after the liens are paid and the debtor receives the exemption.

A simplified illustration: a home worth $300,000, with $230,000 of liens, leaves $70,000 of equity. Against a $50,000 exemption, that is $20,000 above the exemption before any costs of sale. At $270,000, the equity is $40,000 and falls inside the exemption. A $30,000 difference in value changes the case.

That is when an appraisal earns its cost. In most consumer cases where the exemption clearly covers the equity, the trustee has nothing to pursue and a formal appraisal answers a question nobody is asking. With the higher 2026 exemption, more cases will fall into that group.

Chapter 13: two places the number decides the plan

The liquidation test

Under 11 U.S.C. 1325(a)(4), a Chapter 13 plan must pay each unsecured claim at least what it would receive if the estate were liquidated under Chapter 7. The statute measures that as of the effective date of the plan. Non-exempt equity in real estate feeds that figure directly, so the value of the home can set the floor for what the plan pays unsecured creditors.

Stripping a wholly unsecured junior lien

This is where precision matters most, because the rule has a sharp edge.

11 U.S.C. 1322(b)(2) says a Chapter 13 plan may not modify the rights of a creditor whose claim is secured only by a security interest in the debtor's principal residence. In Nobelman v. American Savings Bank, the Supreme Court held that this protects a home lender even when the home is worth less than the debt: the claim cannot be split into a secured part and an unsecured part.

The Eleventh Circuit, whose decisions bind the bankruptcy courts in Georgia, drew the line in Tanner v. FirstPlus Financial: a claim that is wholly unsecured is not protected by 1322(b)(2). Under 11 U.S.C. 506(a), a claim is secured only to the extent of the value of the creditor's interest in the property. So if the home is worth less than what is owed on the first mortgage, a second mortgage or home equity line has no value behind it and can be treated as unsecured in the plan.

The edge is this. If the home is worth even slightly more than the first mortgage balance, the second lien is partly secured, Nobelman applies, and it cannot be modified. The entire question is whether value sits below or above the senior balance. That is a question an appraisal answers, and the other side will test it.

The same strip is not available in Chapter 7. In Bank of America v. Caulkett, the Supreme Court held that a Chapter 7 debtor may not void a wholly underwater junior lien under 11 U.S.C. 506(d).

Judicial lien avoidance, in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13

The Bankruptcy Code defines a judicial lien as one obtained by judgment, levy, sequestration, or other legal or equitable process. Under 11 U.S.C. 522(f)(1)(A), a debtor may avoid a judicial lien to the extent it impairs an exemption, other than a lien securing a domestic support obligation. Section 522 sits in chapter 5 of the Bankruptcy Code, and 11 U.S.C. 103(a) applies chapter 5 in cases under Chapter 7, 11, 12, and 13. It is available in both of the chapters most individuals file.

The test is not whether the home is underwater. It is a formula in 522(f)(2)(A). Add together:

1. the judicial lien,
2. all other liens on the property, and
3. the exemption the debtor could claim if there were no liens.

If that sum exceeds the value the debtor's interest would have with no liens on it, the lien impairs the exemption to the extent of the excess, and that much of it can be avoided.

With Georgia's exemption now at $50,000 or $100,000, the third number is much larger than it was, which means more judicial liens will fail the formula. The value on the other side of the comparison is the one piece of the formula that is an opinion rather than a fact from a document, and that is the piece an appraisal supports.

What a bankruptcy appraisal has to get right

• The effective date. For Schedule A/B, current value as of filing. For contested issues, 11 U.S.C. 506(a) says value is determined in light of the purpose of the valuation and the proposed disposition or use of the property, and 1325(a)(4) uses the plan's effective date. Counsel confirms the controlling date before I begin, because it defines the assignment.
• The interest being valued. Schedule A/B asks for both the whole property and the portion you own. A report should say which it values.
• Support a trustee or creditor can follow. A trustee or creditor is entitled to disagree with any opinion of value. The report's job is to make the reasoning transparent enough that a disagreement has to be argued on the evidence.

For how I scope these assignments, including desktop versus inspection and report format, see my bankruptcy appraisal service page.

Testing the appraiser before the case does

A trustee, a creditor's attorney, and on a contested motion a judge all read whatever gets filed. A form hands them a number and nothing else, which makes it easy to dismiss and easy to answer with somebody else's number. A narrative report states which sales were used, what each adjustment rests on, and how the conclusion was reached, so a disagreement has to be argued on the evidence rather than traded as opinion. Where a strip or a 522(f) formula turns on a narrow band of value, that difference is the case. Ask what you would be receiving before you order it.

Ask about the appraiser as well, and ask every one you are considering:

• How many bankruptcy assignments have they done, and in which chapters?
• Have they been deposed or testified, and how recently?
• Will they inspect the property themselves?
• What effective date will they use, and who confirms it?
• Does the fee depend in any way on the value they reach? The answer should be an immediate no.

Those are fair to put to me. I have been in the field since 1997, served as Chief Review Appraiser at two national appraisal management companies where disputed values came to me to be decided, built and ran a wholesale appraisal desk at 1,700 orders a year, run appraisal management operations, performed FHA field audits, and worked in litigation. I also spend time with the owner at the property rather than shooting photographs and leaving, so counsel is not the only person in the case who understands what the report is built on.

FAQs: Bankruptcy Appraisals in Georgia

Does the bankruptcy court require an appraisal?

Schedule A/B asks for a current value, and the form itself does not require an appraisal. Whether your case needs one depends on whether the value is likely to be contested and what turns on it. Your attorney makes that call.

My case was filed before July 1, 2026. Does the $50,000 exemption apply?

Section 522(b)(3)(A) looks to the state law applicable on the date the petition was filed. How that applies to your case, including any conversion between chapters, is a question for your attorney.

Can a Chapter 13 plan reduce the first mortgage on my home to the home's value?

Not if the claim is secured only by your principal residence. Under 11 U.S.C. 1322(b)(2) and Nobelman, that claim cannot be split into secured and unsecured parts. The strip discussed above applies only to a junior lien with no value behind it.

Can a judgment lien be removed in Chapter 7?

Yes, if it impairs your exemption under the 522(f)(2)(A) formula. Lien avoidance under 522(f) applies in Chapter 7 as well as Chapter 13.