How do we get our payments refunded?

[jnjw]

My husband and I filed Chapter 13 in 12/07. We immediately began making payments, and paid in a total of $861 before we voluntarily dismissed our case in 04/08.

How do we get our money back that we paid in and as of today (I checked 13datacenter) has not been paid to our creditors? Do I write the trustee and ask for it or will it be refunded at some point in time or would I need to file something with the court?

Thank you in advance!

[HHM]

That is an easy answer, you don't get it back.

[jnjw]

LOL!

What?! Why not? Where did it go? It didn't go to our creditors, so does the trustee get to keep all of it? And if so, for what exactly?

[Flamingo]

When your Chapter 13 is dismissed for any reason, the payments you made into the Plan prior to dismissal get distributed as appropriate to the creditors in your Plan, priority creditors first. HHM is correct. Contact your attorney tomorrow who should be able to give you a complete breakdown.

[jnjw]

We don't have an attorney any longer.

Shouldn't we have gotten something showing us a breakdown?? When I checked 13datacenter, it shows that no payments have been made to ANY of our creditors. We are now getting statements again and those statements do not reflect any payments either.

[jnjw]

And does it matter that we had not confirmed prior to dismissal?

[Flamingo]

You will receive something eventually from the Trustee as to an audit of those funds. Call the Clerk of the BK Court tomorrow and ask to be provided a breakdown of your Chapter 13. Remember your Trustee has fees also included in your Plan and he will pay himself out of those funds and then whoever is next on your list as priority creditors; if no priority creditors, the remaining funds will be distribute among the secured and unsecured creditors listed.

I am surprised you were not aware of that prior to your dismissal or were not informed of that.

[jnjw]

Well, it's not really surprising when you've got a crappy attorney.

I was assuming (bad, I know) from what I read somewhere months ago that if a debtor wasn't confirmed, the trustee took their fees and then refunded the money. Maybe that only applies in certain states. I don't know.

Anyway, thanks!

[sdfileger]

May I ask why you decided to dismiss your Bankruptcy.Do you realize this will show up on your credit for at least 7 years.It will also affect you if you need to apply for credit for any reason.

[jnjw]

Yes, we did understand at the time of filing for dismissal, and still understand, that the 13 remains on our credit reports. And yes, we're fully aware that a bankruptcy on a credit report affects ability to get credit....

[biotechsolution]

if your case wasn't confirmed you could get your money back. each court has it's own rules dealing with funds when a case wasn't confirmed. it could take 3-6 months, check with the clerk of the court.

[Help!]

May I ask why you decided to dismiss your Bankruptcy.Do you realize this will show up on your credit for at least 7 years.It will also affect you if you need to apply for credit for any reason.

I am curious also about what caused you to dismiss your Ch. 13... was this because of the bad attorney?

[jnjw]

Thanks biotechsolution! I am going to call in a bit when I finish up working. If not today, then tomorrow.

Why? Long story short - a bad attorney, a horrible trustee, a messed up case, and not educating ourselves beforehand (I did educate myself later, but it was too late to do anything about it). We should've never been in a 13 to begin with. And so we decided it was in our best interest to dismiss. We looked at (with our inept atty) at converting to a 7, but I can't remember now why we couldn't do that at the time? We had thought about refiling 6 months after we dismissed, but now I'm not sure if we're going to or not.

[Minnymouth]

Sounds like you need to do some RESEARCH before you do anything else regarding bankruptcy. Lots of it...

You may not be able to file a Chapter 7 and you have to wait a certain amount of time to refile a Chapter 13.

If you feel that your attorney has done you an injustice, file a complaint with the State Board..

As for getting a "refund"... I wouldn't be looking for any. By the time they take all the expenses out incurred there won't be any to refund.

[jnjw]

That's fine. I would just like to have a breakdown or something showing where the money went, especially if it went to any creditors. So if no refund, just some documentation would be great.

At the time that we filed, we qualified for a 7, but we were trying to save assets that were not ours. My story is around here somewhere because I asked a few questions here previously and shared my long story...lol. I've done tons of research and spoke with an attorney on another board who has been kind enough to help me, and for right now, I'm just kind of taking a break from it. I read so much that I got overwhelmed with it. And like I said, as of right now, we're not sure that we're going to refile as a chapter 7. Six months won't be up until the end of October, so plenty of time to make a decision and research.