What A Creditor Cannot Take
G.S. 1C-1601 — $35,000 in a home, $3,500 in a car, and retirement accounts
| Kept from a creditor's claim | Up to |
|---|---|
| Kept from a creditor's claimAn interest in the home a debtor or dependent lives in, or a burial plot | Up to$35,000, or $60,000 for an unmarried debtor 65 or older whose co-owner of the home has died |
| Kept from a creditor's claimAny property, from the unused part of the home exemption | Up to$5,000 |
| Kept from a creditor's claimOne motor vehicle | Up to$3,500 |
| Kept from a creditor's claimHousehold furnishings, goods, clothing, appliances, books, animals, crops and instruments | Up to$5,000, plus $1,000 for each dependent up to $4,000 more |
| Kept from a creditor's claimTools of the trade and professional books | Up to$2,000 |
In North Carolina, each resident debtor also keeps, free of creditors' claims, prescribed health aids, compensation for personal injury or for the death of a person the debtor depended on, and individual retirement plans, including IRAs and Roth IRAs.
Injury compensation is not exempt from claims for the funeral, legal, medical and hospital charges tied to that same injury.
Sources for this section (1)
- G.S. 1C-1601 — What property exempt
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed North Carolina attorney.