11 U.S.C. § 363 — Use, sale, or lease of property

(a) Defines "cash collateral": cash and cash-like items (like negotiable instruments, deposit accounts) that both the bankruptcy estate and someone else have a claim^* to. It includes profits, rents, and hotel or motel occupancy fees tied to property covered by section 552(b), whether from before or after the case started.

(b)(1) The trustee can use, sell, or lease estate property outside the normal course of business, after notice and a hearing. But if the debtor^* promised customers it would not share their personal information with unrelated companies, the trustee cannot sell or lease that personal information unless: (A) the sale follows that same privacy policy, or (B) after a consumer privacy ombudsman is appointed under section 332, and after notice and a hearing, the court approves the sale, weighing the facts and finding no proof the sale would break other laws.
(2) If the Clayton Act's merger-notice rule applies to the sale, the trustee, not the debtor, must file that notice, and the usual waiting period shortens to 15 days after the FTC and Justice Department get it, unless a court or the Act itself extends it.

(c)(1) If the trustee is running the debtor's business under one of the listed reorganization chapters (721, 1108, 1183, 1184, 1203, 1204, or 1304), the trustee can make ordinary-course deals, including selling or leasing property, without notice or a hearing, unless the court says otherwise.
(2) But the trustee cannot use, sell, or lease "cash collateral" this way unless everyone with an interest in it agrees, or the court approves after notice and a hearing.
(3) The hearing on cash collateral can be an early, preliminary hearing or combined with the adequate-protection hearing under subsection (e), but must be scheduled around the debtor's needs. At a preliminary hearing, the court can only allow the use if the trustee will likely win at the final hearing. The court must act quickly on any request.
(4) Except when everyone agrees, the trustee must keep cash collateral separate and accounted for.

(d) The trustee's power to use, sell, or lease property under (b) or (c) has two limits: (1) if the debtor is a nonprofit corporation^* or trust, the sale must follow the ordinary, non-bankruptcy law that would apply to that kind of entity^*; and (2) the sale cannot conflict with any relief already granted under section 362(c), (d), (e), or (f).

(e) Anyone with an interest in property being used, sold, or leased can ask the court, at any time, with or without a hearing, to block or add conditions to protect that interest. This also covers property under an unexpired personal-property lease, instead of being handled under the automatic-stay relief rules in section 362.

(f) The trustee can sell property free and clear of someone else's interest in it only if one of five things is true: (1) ordinary law allows a sale free of that interest; (2) the interest holder agrees; (3) the interest is a lien and the sale price is more than all liens on the property combined; (4) the interest is genuinely disputed; or (5) the interest holder could be legally forced to accept a cash payment instead of the interest itself.

(g) Even without meeting (f), the trustee can sell property free of any dower or curtesy right, a spouse's traditional claim to a share of property.

(h) Even without meeting (f), the trustee can sell both the estate's share and a co-owner's share of jointly owned property, held as tenants in common, joint tenants, or tenants by the entirety, but only if: (1) physically dividing the property is not practical; (2) selling just the estate's share would bring in much less money than selling the whole thing; (3) the benefit to the estate outweighs any harm to the co-owners; and (4) the property is not used to produce, carry, or distribute electricity or gas for sale.

(i) Before a sale under (g) or (h) closes, or a sale of property that was community property of the debtor and spouse, the spouse or co-owner can buy the property at the same price the sale would have used.

(j) After a sale under (g) or (h), the trustee must split the proceeds, minus sale costs but not the trustee's own pay, between the spouse or co-owners and the estate, based on each one's share.

(k) At a sale under (b) of property carrying a lien on an allowed claim, the lien holder can bid at the sale, unless the court says no for cause, and if they win, they can use the amount they are owed as part or all of their payment instead of cash.

(l) The trustee's power to use, sell, or lease property, or a reorganization plan's power to do so, overrides any contract, lease, or other-law clause that would end or change the debtor's rights in property just because the debtor went bankrupt, became insolvent, or got a trustee. This stays subject to section 365, the rules on assuming and rejecting contracts and leases.

(m) If an appeals court reverses or changes a sale or lease approval, that does not undo the sale to a buyer or lessee who acted in good faith, even if they knew about the appeal, unless the approval and the sale were paused during the appeal.

(n) The trustee can cancel a sale if bidders secretly agreed to control the price, and can recover the difference between the property's real value and the rigged sale price, plus costs and attorney's fees. The court can also award punitive damages against anyone who entered such an agreement on purpose.

(o) If someone buys an interest in a consumer credit deal covered by the Truth in Lending Act, or a similar federally defined "consumer credit contract," through a bankruptcy sale under this section, they stay on the hook for all the same claims and defenses the consumer could have raised, just as if the sale had not happened in bankruptcy.

(p) At any hearing under this section: (1) the trustee must prove that adequate protection is being provided; and (2) anyone claiming an interest in the property must prove how valid, senior, or large that interest is.