Discharged/closed?

[Kingxray]

Hello,
For those of you that followed our case, I have an update and was hoping you could help me understand. After completing our 60 month payment plan, the trustee ordered a 2004 exam in March of this year. I attended the informal exam via telephone from our lawyer's office. We made a deal and I agreed to pay a lump sum. Our lawyer filed to modify our plan to include the lump sum and the trustee confirmed it in April after which I paid the lump sum to the trustee. Recently we received two letters from the trustee postmarked the same day. One had certifications enclosed for us to fill out and return stating we had no "domestic support obligations" and no exemptions pursuant to rule 1328. The second letter stated "Your chapter 13 case has been closed" "it is no longer necessary to make payments......"

I've been checking PACER and there has been nothing filed since our confirmation in April. What do you think second letter means? Don't we have to be discharged before we are closed? I'm so looking forward to putting this behind us. I was wondering how the discharge/closed phase of BK13 works. Thanks for listening.

[justbroke]

I think they mean an "administrative" closure and not a court case closure. That's the only thing I can think of.

[LadyInTheRed]

The trustee's office has closed the case in their records because the trustee has completed his administration of the bankruptcy estate. The case has not really been closed by the court.

Sign the forms the trustee sent you and send them to your attorney unless the trustee's letter instructed otherwise. Those forms will be filed with the court and a notice will be sent to creditors giving them the opportunity to object to your discharge based only on the contents of those forms. You will receive your discharge after the last date to object. Your case will close soon after, if not at the same time as, discharge. At least that is the way it worked in my case.

[Kingxray]

Thx Lady. That makes sense. I didn't want to celebrate prematurely. We mailed the forms to the trustee as instructed last week. They haven't filed anything with the courts as of yet. Do you remember how long the creditors have to object? I don't anticipate that they will object but I was just wondering how much longer we would have to wait.

[ddddougggg]

If the form you are referring to is the Application for Discharge, then I happen to know that in my district (California - Central District) there is a 14-day window for objections.