District rule

Chapter 13 Car Loan Rules: Northern District of Texas

Written by JaredLast reviewed 2026-08-25

Can a Chapter 13 filer in the Northern District of Texas buy a car without a judge's order?

Yes, inside published limits. General Order 2026-01, dated 2/11/2026, is the standing order that governs every Chapter 13 case in the Northern District of Texas — it was signed and became effective that same day. It gives a filer two paths: file a Motion to Incur Debt and get a bankruptcy judge's approval, or submit a Request to Incur Debt to the standing Chapter 13 trustee, in which case "Court approval of the purchase is not required if the following criteria, established by the Court, are met prior to the purchase of the vehicle and the purchase is approved by the Trustee." The trustee for the Dallas Division, Thomas D. Powers, implements that second path through his office's own "Chapter 13 Debtor's Request to Incur Debt to Purchase a Vehicle" form — a document this site fetched directly from the trustee's website, where it carries an HTTP last-modified date of December 5, 2025.

That two-path structure is the general shape described on this site's Chapter 13 pillar page and in the motion to incur debt glossary entry: a written request to the trustee in the ordinary case, a court motion when the trustee says no or the request falls outside published parameters. What follows is what those parameters actually are in this district, sourced to both documents.

What are the dollar, payment, and rate caps for trustee-approved financing?

Three numbers, stated identically in both documents this site fetched:

General Order 2026-01 states the three criteria as: "1. The loan for the purchase of the vehicle cannot exceed $30,000; 2. The monthly payment amount cannot exceed $650.00; 3. The interest rate cannot exceed 21%." The trustee's form uses near-identical wording. A request that fits inside all three numbers is the one the trustee can approve directly, without a judge ever seeing it.

What's barred outright, even within those caps?

Two categories, and neither is a dollar limit — both are flat exclusions from the trustee-approval lane. General Order 2026-01 states the purchase agreement "may not include a vehicle warranty or any type of additional insurance, such as disability insurance, GAP insurance, etc." The trustee's form uses the same language: "No vehicle warranties, or any type of additional insurance (i.e. disability insurance, GAP insurance, etc.)." Separately, both documents exclude a "luxury vehicle, even if it is old" — a purchase within budget on paper still falls outside this process if the vehicle itself is a luxury make or model, regardless of its age or resulting price.

What happens if the trustee doesn't approve the request?

The debtor can still get the car — through a judge instead of the trustee. Both documents describe the same fallback in nearly the same words. The trustee's form states, in bold capitals: "IF THE CHAPTER 13 TRUSTEE DOES NOT APPROVE THIS REQUEST, THE DEBTOR MAY FILE A MOTION TO INCUR DEBT AND SEEK COURT APPROVAL OF THE PROPOSED PURCHASE AGREEMENT, WHICH MOTION MAY BE APPROVED AND GRANTED BY THE COURT." General Order 2026-01 says the same thing and adds a procedural detail: if the trustee doesn't approve the Request, "the Trustee's office will advise the Debtor's Counsel if additional information is required or that the Request will not be approved" before the debtor moves to a formal Motion.

Once a Motion to Incur Debt is actually filed with the court, the district's Local Bankruptcy Rule 9007-1 governs how it can be resolved without a hearing. The rule lets a movant use a "negative notice" procedure — serve the motion with a deadline printed on it, and if nobody responds, the relief is treated as unopposed and the court can grant it without a hearing. The rule's standard window is 21 days, but a footnote to the rule's own notice-of-hearing template shortens that to "14 days for motions to obtain credit" — and General Order 2026-01 elsewhere groups "Motions to Incur Debt/Obtain Credit" as a single category of matter. The rule's separate list of motions that must be set for a hearing regardless of any response excludes this shortcut only for "motions... to obtain credit in chapter 11 cases," not Chapter 13, which is some evidence the 14-day window is the one that applies here. Neither the trustee's form nor General Order 2026-01 states a turnaround time for the trustee's own review of a Request before it reaches that stage — that step is silent on timing in both documents.

Attorney's fees for either path are set by the same general order, not left to negotiation. General Order 2026-01 presumes $200 reasonable for "preparation of and representation of the Debtor regarding a Chapter 13 Debtor's Request to Incur Debt (to purchase a vehicle)," and $450 reasonable for a Motion to Incur Debt generally — and it specifically caps the combined total at that same $450 "if the Debtor submits a Request to Incur Debt that is denied by the Trustee and subsequently files a Motion to Incur Debt."

Does the debtor have to be current on plan payments, or does an attorney have to sign?

On being current: neither document says so. That's worth stating plainly because it's not universal — this site's Chapter 13 pillar page notes that one Pennsylvania-area standing trustee's own published guidance says authorization letters go out "usually... ONLY on confirmed cases in which plan payments are current." Nothing this site fetched from the Northern District of Texas trustee's form or General Order 2026-01 states an equivalent rule. The general order does put the burden elsewhere: "The Debtor has the burden of proof on the issue of feasibility," and requires amended Schedules I and J "any time approval of a vehicle purchase is sought, whether by Motion or Request" — so the trustee is still checking whether the new payment fits the budget, just not through a stated payment-history prerequisite.

On signing: the form doesn't require an attorney specifically. Its signature block reads "Debtor or Attorney Signature," with a declaration line captioned "Debtor/Attorney (circle one)," and it asks for the debtor's own phone number and email "only if you are representing yourself and do not have a lawyer" — language that assumes self-represented filers are possible, not just theoretical. Where an attorney does sign, the declaration adds a specific representation: "the source of the payment of my attorney fees is the Debtor and not a third party, dealership, or finance company in connection with the financing of the vehicle."

Is this a Dallas-only policy, or does it cover the whole district?

It's district-wide. General Order 2026-01 states in its opening paragraph that it "applies in all Chapter 13 Cases filed on, filed after, or pending as of or after the Effective Date in all Divisions of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas" — Dallas, Fort Worth, and the district's other divisions alike. The $30,000 / $650 / 21% parameters are therefore court-ordered policy for the whole district, not an informal practice specific to one trustee's office, even though the Request to Incur Debt form implementing them, on dallasch13.com, is published by and for the Dallas Division's standing trustee. A filer in a different division of the Northern District of Texas should confirm with their own division's standing trustee which office's form to use, since this page verified only the Dallas trustee's document.

How current are these figures, and where could they change?

As current as a document this site could locate and fetch directly, with two data points worth naming rather than assuming. First, the trustee's own vehicle-purchase form carries no printed revision number, but the file dallasch13.com serves reports an HTTP last-modified date of December 5, 2025 — this site checked that header directly rather than relying on the filename alone. Second, that same form's declaration paragraph tells filers their attorney fees are handled under "General Order 2023-04... as it is amended from time to time" — but General Order 2026-01, the document actually governing Chapter 13 cases in this district as of this page's review, states plainly that it "supersedes General Order 2025-06," which means General Order 2023-04 is at least two general orders behind current as of this writing. The fee figures on this page come from General Order 2026-01 itself, not from the citation printed on the trustee's form.

That gap between a form's printed citation and the court's actual current order is exactly the kind of thing a filer's own attorney or the trustee's office — not a website — should confirm before relying on it for a specific case. For how this same trustee's dollar figures have moved in past years, see the history noted on this site's Chapter 13 pillar page.

This is general information about published court and trustee documents, not legal advice for a specific case. Whether a specific vehicle purchase will be approved is a question for the filer's bankruptcy attorney and the standing trustee's office, not a website.