Can you file a 7 then file a 13?

[slam22]

Here is the executive summary. Upside down on house. The value of our home is less than the 1st TD. Our HELOC is 215K and want to get it lien stripped. Problem is that we also have an additional 185K in CC's and LOC. That's puts us over the 336k unsecured filing limit for a 13. We sure can't afford to file Chapter 11. We make around 150k a year. If we keep the house we will pass the means test. Can we file a Chapter 7 to discharge the CC's and LOC, then later file a Chapter 13 to get the HELOC lien stripped? We are seeing our attorney on Friday.

[JollyGG]

This is a very hazy area right now in the bk laws.

My understanding of the situation is that you may file a chapter 7 then immediately file a chapter 13. However, you chapter 13 cannot be discharged.

So the situation this would concievebly work for is someone who wants to discharge all their unsecured debt in a chapter 7 then have the protection of the bankruptcy court while they pay their nondichargable debt in full during a nondischarable chapter 13.

[rrockinggramma]

basically you won't get "discharged" under the new law unless 4 years has passed from file date to file date. So then you need to ask yourself if filing a chapter 13 would help. You would not be able to lein strip I believe because you would not be receiving a discharge and thus, the heloc would come back. But a good attorney could let you know what you could do or not do in the "chapter 20" filing.

[southernbelle]

I plan to do this myself, but what I was told by my atty is that you could file the Chapter 13 after the Chapter 7 is closed (not just discharged). I owe taxes and hopefully will discharge part of the taxes as well as unsecured debts in my 7. I will still owe too much in taxes to try to negotiate with creditors on my own and would like to avoid a federal tax lien, garnishments or any other kind of extreme collection measures.

For sanity reasons, I am willing to take another hit on my credit report and know that in 5 years this nightmare will be over. Also since all of my debt will be tax related, there might be a chance I could pay it off early without any objections from the Trustee.

There is one catch though, my case is an asset case which means that the longer it takes to close, the more interest and penalties accrue on the taxes so I will have to make payments on my own prior to filing the 13. And the automatic stay if you file the 13 after the 7 is only 30 days. You must go to court to have the stay extended.

Since we won't have the luxury of a discharge at the end of the 13, I don't know how lien stripping would work, but I would find an atty that is familiar with this issue and ask them for guidance.

Let me know what you find out because this is unchartered territory and I don't know if my 13 will get confirmed, but I'm going to try.