Dismissal, desperate for answers, please help

[athomas]

I am home from work sick today, and when I walked outside to get the mail I found a notice from the trustee that our Ch. 13 (under old law, mo. 55 of 60) has been requested to be dismissed without predjudice. We are currently in arrears to the tune of $6983. Most of this has been throughout the life of the plan, and are not due to a sudden stop in payments. I realize this makes no difference, just throwing it out there.

***I am in an extremely fragile state and am well aware that I did this to myself and how important it is to not miss payments. I cannot change this now and extremely distraught, so please go easy on me in the regard. I assure you the beating I am giving myself today is more than sufficient.***

Unfortunately this is all I received...no other notice, nothing. My attorney is not in today, the trustee is not in today. What options do we have? Will we have the opportunity to pay the arrearages either upfront or over the remaining life of the plan? Are we just screwed? We have never received any other notice, this has not happened before. The wording of the papers leads me to believe this is not quite a done deal, that there are remaining options...anyone have any experience or advice? Please help me.

Impprtant things to note...nobody has lost a job, there has been no change in circumstances. It would be difficult but doable for us to roll the arrearages into the remaining plan and still be done on time. If anything our circumstances have improved.

[justbroke]

Here's the real problem and why the Trustee is moving for dismissal. Since you're in month 55, you have absolutely no room to make up the arrears! As you are probably well aware of, a Chapter 13 Plan cannot exceed 60 months. The Trustee is very right in that there's only 5 months left and you need to makeup some $6K+ in addition to your existing payment.

I have absolutely no solution for you. The only way out of this, is to convert ot Chapter 7, obtain a hardship discharge, or pay the arrears. Paying the arrears could be done by asking for a modification to your Plan to cure it, but with only 5 months left, it may need to be done quickly.

This is not a done deal, they are just telling you that they are filing the Motion to Dismiss for Failure to Maintain Plan Payments. I'm surprised they let it go that long, but they are "nice" in some cases. You need to get this corrected. You have at least 15 days from the date that Motion is filed, before there is a hearing on that matter (unless your District allows negative noticing and you need to respond by Objection/Opposition and server it on the Trustee within the 15 days, otherwise the motion is considered unopposed).

Do you have access to PACER? Did the letter look just like a letter or like a Court Paper?

[falken]

Is there any way you get $6983 quickly? I know that's a tall order for someone in a 13, however, if you can pay it instantly you can plead for the judge to not dismiss the case.

Either way.. call your attorney, right away. The trustee might be willing to roll in to the remaining plan payments, it can't hurt to ask.
Time is important, so move quickly!.

I wish you the best of luck!

[athomas]

Thank you for the advice. I have about 11,500 remaining to meet my plan base. So it is not $65,000 that we have to pay, just the 11,500 which includes the arrearages. It's just a matter of whether they will permit it or not. We have already paid over $78,000 of a $89,544.00 plan base.

[athomas]

Can anyone tell me, is this a done deal? What happens next?

[justbroke]

Can anyone tell me, is this a done deal? What happens next?

As i wrote, it's not a done deal. The Trustee can't personally dismiss your case, only the Judge can. This is done by Motion.

As I wrote, the Trustee will file said Motion with the Court. it will contain a hearing date or have a "negative notice" date. Either way, you, through your attorney, must respond to the Court by that date and/or show up at any hearing on the matter.

PRIOR to that date (hearing or negative notice), your attorney will seek to get a stipulation with the Trustee to attempt to cure the arrears.

As I also wrote, you don't have many months left of the plan to cure the arrears, so you'll have to come up with a lot of money, quickly. The Trustee will want to know where the money came from... as you're not supposed to incur new debt.

[spidge]

Would the trustee allow a loan from a retirement plan to settle the entire amount? Of coarse if you have one.
Your so close. I would think the trustee will work with you in some way.

Please keep us posted.

[athomas]

Thanks to all who responded. The bad thing is that many people are observing the holiday today and I have limited resources to get answers. From the notice I recieved it is hard to decipher whether or not we had an opportunity to respond to this or of it was a done deal. I am slowly feeling a little calmer, clear headed and ready to face this head on. I will be sure to keep you posted.

[justbroke]

Thanks to all who responded. The bad thing is that many people are observing the holiday today and I have limited resources to get answers. From the notice I recieved it is hard to decipher whether or not we had an opportunity to respond to this or of it was a done deal. I am slowly feeling a little calmer, clear headed and ready to face this head on. I will be sure to keep you posted.

This is easy to figure out just what you recieved. At the very top of the page is it titled "UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT"? If not, then it's not a Motion, but just a notice to you that the Trustee is about to file a motion.

Even if it is the actual MOTION TO DISMISS FOR FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PAYMENTS you still have around 15 days, and even then, your lawyer can fix it up to 10 days after that.

[rrockinggramma]

when my bk's were dismissed, the trustee sent the notice and we had 30 days to do something. Either file a motion for a hearing or bring the payment current. If we did nothing, then the case was dismissed. That is a lot of money to come up with and everyone is right that you don't have much time. And since your circumstances haven't changed, then you probably don't have a lot of options unless you can plead to the trustee and the judge that you missed those payments throughout and now don't know what to do. Hopefully your attorney will have options but in month 55 he has already put you in the file and doesn't see you as an active case. Were the payments missed just because and then you never tried to catch them up? When I missed a payment I always tried to make them up asap. I couldn't always send a double so I would send like 1 1/2 or 1 and 1/4 etc. until I was caught up. But I never let myself get more than 1 month behind. 2 months behind is when trustee's get nervous. GL and keep us posted. It would be a shame to pay in 55 months and then lose it all.