Latest BK13 Tribulations :Do They Ever End?

[Barbisi]

We lost our eighteen and a half year old former feral cat Gizzie Gu Gu, in early March. She was originally my late mother's dearly loved pet who only in the last two years or so warmed up to us and craved affection.We took her to the vet twice the week before she peacefully died from euthanasia. ($300). This was the week of Colorado's monster storm, and also the week that our regular vet's mother died out of state forcing her to close for a week. So we had to scramble and find a different source to come to our house to put Gazelle to sleep. Luckily and at a cost of more than $300 (for the procedure and cremation) a kind older vet was located who treated our little girl gently and with great dignity.
So then we had to cough up 3.5K for the transmission on the only 8 year old car, plus a $200+ tuneup so that the car will hopefully pass the mandatory (after 8 years in Colorado!) emission test. (It's a good thing we fixed my husband's car ;he had to commute to the LM site today , an hour round trip .Henceforth he will going in at least twice per week, so he needs a reliable car with less than 200K miles on it!)
On Friday two more surprises : (1) a letter from Cigna's Data i Sight informing us an out of network claim had been made for my Oct. 20 2020 surgery in the amount of more than 6K from an unknown provider.It turned out this mysterious person was an assistant surgeon to my gynecologist in the operating room. Supposedly the law does not allow this physician to charge us this outrageous amount, which would be far more my own doctor received. We should be billed for around $57 for his services. Cigna advised me that should I receive a bill for a larger amount , I should contact them immediately. Worst case scenario :we might owe $1200. So we shall see. (2 ) in the evening, our little Ragdoll mix started hopping and limping. A pretty sleepless night. On Saturday morning , our princess was treated (a minor elbow sprain) with a cortisone shot at a cost of more than $200.
About this time after just qualifying for the vaccine , I was able to get the J&J Covid -19 single dose shot. So we rushed to the pharmacy, picked up our kitty brought her home and ran errands the rest of the day! (And if you add up all these charges, it's no wonder, we have little left in savings -enough for the swamp cooler repair?)
This is why when others boast about their wonderful, easy BK13 journey and their friendly neighborhood trustee, I have to wonder why must we live under constant BK13 -PTSD? What next? Will it end with the last payment ?

[justbroke]

Barbisi, no Chapter 13 can survive many unknowns or or even many knowns. It's not designed for surprises although it may be able to, in some circumstances, deal with a surprise here or there. This is predominantly why more than 50% of Chapter 13s fail. Life happens.

Trials and tribulations won't just stop when a Chapter 13 end since life continues. I can tell you that with all the hindsight of a discharged Chapter 13 debtor. It's a journey and there are many bumps in the road. The financial constraint of a Chapter 13 is either a blessing or a curse and only time will tell.

You are close to the finish line and that in itself is amazing given the road that you have traveled. Mine started with four new tires one-week after filing (and I only had $20 the day I filed). It continued with a blocked sewer line which had to be dug up, under concrete driveway, and replaced. It then continued with all sorts of HOA violations ($$$), pool leaking, damaged roof, more car problems, and every conceivable small thing that chips away at being able to save. Fortunately I had no health issues during this time, but that didn't stop divorce, a near depletion of the 401(k) in settlement, and support payments of $3,000/month.

I survived. You're strong and you will too.

[Zombie13]

Yep, this is exactly why we want to sell this house ASAP rather than later, to avoid these costly repairs, particularly the sewer line. The only way that could be paid for that I know of, fresh out of bankruptcy, would be a 401K loan. But we are considering that, for the home sale preparations: paint, new appliances, etc. As a note, I now know of at least one company that does home updates, and the seller pays that company at closing, so there is no out of pocket expense. But, of course, there's the saying, buyer beware. I will research this company and others, get quotes, talk with them, etc. We need to get the sewer line scoped and cleaned this year, soon, so we don't have a surprise.
Barbisi and I have discussed multiple scenarios:
the most likely scenario is: we sell the house in early 2022, rent in Colorado til I get a job out of state, then relocate. We may have to pay at least a portion of the relo, hence the need to get rid of stuff between now and early 2022 - dump the ballast.
The most ideal scenario timewise: I get a job out of state in early 2022 where I can work from the CO home til we sell the house, then relocate, with a relocation package.
As Barbisi has stated innumerable times, if we stay in the house, try to save money and/or fix things at our leisure, then more systems (house components whose replacements do not result in an increase in home sale price) will break down; staying for a couple years will be more costly than selling immediately. In other words: in a couple years the home may sell for a higher price, but the cost of system replacements outweigh the increased home sale price. That being said, Barbisi has also stated, innumerable times, this real estate bubble will not last forever, and we don't want to be stuck in this house when the bubble bursts, since we will be right back where we started with BK13 Day One. We don't want that. Plus, we aren't getting any younger. Time is ticking away, and we can never get it back. So we gotta jump.
justbroke , how did you pay for the sewer line repair? With a 401k loan? Savings? Other?

[justbroke]

Zombie13 I paid for the sewer line with the little savings that I had. It seemed that always, as soon as I had a couple of thousand $$$ squirreled away in the war chest, something declared war on me. I'm actually glad that I'm out of that house, although I loved that house. I have learned that the older the home, the more systems that fail and the more money that one must put into the house. They lost me, completely, when they told me $21K to replace 2 of the 3 HVAC systems. The pool/spa developed another leak somewhere (losing about 300-500 gallons a week). Something kept burrowing through my yard (it was an armadillo and ended up paying for service to treat law to kill off cinch and other bugs that armadillos will dig to get to). The never ending story.

I understand Barbisi completely.

When they told me about the 13 year old HVAC system, that's when I yelled "check please" and never looked back. Take your shot and take the plunge.

[Zombie13]

Thanks justbroke . My concern is, jumping from one stressful situation directly to another, although we need to do it, while simultaneously improving our stress management: going from a 5 year bk to prepping/selling/leaving the house, and renting somewhere (searching for a place in CO or elsewhere), moving, doing a job search and interviews, along with salary negotiations, all together at the same time, right after finishing up this 5 year stressful situation. Maybe Yoga and Tequila. This is why I am very adamant about trying to do what we can now, before the BK is over: get rid of stuff we shouldn't take with us, fixing stuff in the house *if we can* (faucets, lawn, minor plumbing, appliances). Unfortunately we had to fix the transmission which took a large chunk out of a 'house fix' budget... no wonder I grumble about that. That way, when it's 'sell time', we could just pull out the furniture, do the paint, and done. But, the stress, frustration, depression, and demotivating events make it difficult for us to stand up and get these things done. We keep getting hit and at some point we reason, it's not worth getting up anymore. So frustrating. Yet, we keep trying.
Barbisi i is right; most of our memories here are negative; very few positive things have happened since we've lived here. So, sayanora Colorado; we don't need you anymore.

[Carmella]

Zombie13 I am totally on board with sell the house/rent because it's a money pit and I imagine that other repairs will pop up if you take it at your leisure.

justbroke I would say Chapter 13 is both a blessing and a curse, for those of us who last the 5 yrs! Unless one gets very lucky without any significant bumps in the road!

[Zombie13]

Carmella , thank you!

[Barbisi]

Thank you Carmella and jb for your always soothing, supportive replies!
I know your BK13 (and 7!) roads were strewn with hidden thorns (as ours currently is) jb, so I know how well you understand my mercurial frustration with just exasperating these umpteenth complications really are - few debtors on these forum threads have had to deal with quite as many of these nightmare scenarios as we have!
And Carmella you too have had so many unpleasant and challenging difficulties to contend with, it's remarkable how upbeat you continue to be in the face of so much unplanned adversity! (How are you supposed to properly plan for ongoing adversity, eh?)
Well, so far this week hasn't been nearly as awful as last Friday/Saturday were (but the weekend isn't over yet LOL!) At least, I didn't suffer any adverse reactions to the vaccine of note!

[flashoflight]

I'm constantly trying to build up and replenish the war chest when it gets drained. It's become much easier to replenish the war chest with work from home due to the pandemic. Staying out of debt is key and getting rid of the pre-petition minimums via the BK court has been very helpful.

I would say all houses and all cars eventually become money pits. So are the pets. I just got through replacing the HVAC (prev was 35 years old), replacing the wooden fence with vinyl, replacing the leaning patio cover (28 yrs), and painting the exterior. Everything else I repair rather than replace to due lack of funds like sliding patio doors and crap plumbing. I put foaming root killer every 3 months to keep the plumber away. With some luck, I should be good for another 15 years on the house. One of the cars is 20 years old but it's a Toyota so it hasn't been to the shop much and the timing belt was done by the previous owner. If it was a Chevy, Mercedes, or Chrysler, it would be a huge money pit that would be hard to survive in a BK13. But it does help I don't drive much during the pandemic. The pets are 15 and 6. The senior dog hasn't become a money pit as I expected. The 6 year old dog is fine.

[shipo]

One of the cars is 20 years old but it's a Toyota so it hasn't been to the shop much and the timing belt was done by the previous owner. If it was a Chevy, Mercedes, or Chrysler, it would be a huge money pit that would be hard to survive in a BK13. But it does help I don't drive much during the pandemic. The pets are 15 and 6. The senior dog hasn't become a money pit as I expected. The 6 year old dog is fine.

LOL, over the years I've pretty much had them all; maybe it was how much focus and money Chrysler put into their minivans, but our 4 ChryCo minivans, 2 Dodge, 2 Chrysler, amassed over 800,000 combined miles and the sum and total of maintenance was less than either my my Honda Accord or my Acura TL. I drove the former for the last 90,000 miles of it's life, and had to junk it at the 200,000 mile mark due to corrosion in the middle of my Chapter 13. The TL hasn't been much cheaper than the Accord, albeit because I opted to roll a significant chunk of preventative maintenance into the new clutch I had to put in it a few years ago; that price tag came out to almost exactly $5,000. Per my maintenance records, the four minivans combined only needed about $4,700 in unscheduled maintenance, and that included one new transmission.

[flashoflight]

I like the Pacifica a lot if I had infinite money. It's a popular fleet vehicle too. Before the pandemic, I'd try to get the Pacifica if I needed a fleet vehicle for the day.

[Barbisi]

Wow, you two manage to turn a thread of woe into another car love fest! I can see why your Bk13 stress were so transitory -just focus on your auto parts LOL!

[shipo]

Yeah, my tale of automotive woe during my Chapter 13 started was my 2001 Honda Accord literally rotting away before my eyes; imagine coming out to your car and seeing it leaking coolant, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and gasoline (from two locations) all at the same time. The silver lining is the (then) 11-year old Acura TL 6MT (a 2006 model) I replaced the Accord with is such a great car I have no intention of retiring it until parts become scarce.

[brokenurse]

I feel your pain! If it makes you feel any better our bank account has been hemorrhaging for the last 4 months. 5k waterproofing repair, 5k+ in car repairs, 4k+ in medical bills, teenagers, etc. We are 14 months from being done; my husband got a raise that we just reported and I know our trustee is going to increase our payment. We've been at 100% for a year so we'd be done with bk early if that happens, but I'm just like...can you not and let us keep it for the next thing that I know is gonna break?! Or the down payments we're going to need for the two cars we'll need to buy immediately after discharge?

That said, we have been very fortunate thus far in that we have been able to scrimp and save for all these things that have come up and we've been able to pay cash. It definitely sucks and I've felt like we've been holding our breath for the last 4 years, but it has also taught us valuable life lessons about our spending habits and how we never want to be in this position again. It has made us really think before we spend anything now.

[Barbisi]

I understand exactly where you're coming from and I share your frustration with how much cash we've all had to come up with, brokenurse!
I agree we never want to repeat this again and I wish you the best going forward -may you succeed in spades -you deserve it!
For us the spending that doomed us to this scenario was not personal and we didn't need to learn how not to buy things, but not to buy an awful money pit!
We are 100% against buying another house for some time to come because of this fixer upper fiasco - had we just kept renting,we would never have had to go through this "blessed" curse!
I know no one else bought a house that is almost 100% directly responsible for their BK13 -but we did! In late 2014 we were entirely solvent but had no cash down payment and had to resort to a 401k loan , had an almost 800 fico score each, and in early 2017 after 100k repairs and updates solely with CCs on a house from hell that helped kill my mother, we had to file BK13!
Our lesson is :only buy a house you truly love that needs few repairs or updates with a cash down payment! No more rickety sweat equity we can't afford!