Question on fees for mortgage when you filed chapter 13

[mbutterfly]

I filled chapter 13 Dec, 2008, I'm paying my 1st mortgage outside the plan and just rec'd from chase my statement today . On my statement, Chase added an attorney fee of $200.00 b/c I filled bk for attorney fees. WTH!!!! Chase stated that it will be ongoing every month. That does not seem right!!

[Flamingo]

That is quite common. They charge the fee for paperwork for your mortgage to transfer it to their bankruptcy department. Make sure if you send in checks for your mortgage payments to get the correct address where to send them because the address almost always changes if you pay outside the Plan. Also bring the fee to your attorney's attention but it should only be a one time fee not every month.

[mbutterfly]

Thank you Flamingo for your reply.

Last month Chase send me a statement with a different payment address in Ohio for thier BK dept, and I also send payment certified mail, however this month statement had a diff address where I normally send payment and I addressed this with Chase Rep. I have never paid late and it's unfair that they charge the additional fee

[Flamingo]

You can bet that "fee" is listed somewhere in the fine print in all the paperwork you signed when you obtained the mortgage...

[justbroke]

This may be strange. They are, as Flamingo points out, allowed to charges fees if it's defined within the contract (mortgage). However, these fees are applied to the balance and are not "billed" monthly.

Your lawyer should be able to diagnose the fees and make sure that they are contractually allowed.

I only see the issue if they are being billed monthly. They should apply to the balance, and, again, this must be spelled out clearly in your mortgage/note.

As a matter of fact, I don't think the fee can be punitive at all. It certainly can't be ongoing either. All lenders must disclose these fees on their Claim (form B10) and it must explicitly state the reason for the fee.

Now it's starting to sound odd to me.

[mbutterfly]

Our attorney got back to us.... we are not supposed to pay the $200.00 attorney fee until our case has been confirmed... He's shooting a letter out to chase......