Let me apologize for having so many questions.
My wife and I are filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We have already retained our lawyer and began paying him. We met with him for a couple of hours last week but we still have a few things we are unclear about and sort of having doubts if we understood him correctly or if he is clear on the situation.
First of all, my wife could file Chapter 7, but I can't because I filed Chapter 7 only a couple of years ago. Our attorney said that not enough time has passed for me to get my debts discharged and I would have to sign acknowledging that, but that when enough time passes I can drop this 13 and do another one with the debts being discharged. And that my wife's could be "flipped to a Chapter 7." This has us very confused.
Also, this is the same attorney who handled a property settlement for my wife a few years ago. She was awarded half of her exhusband's 401K and IRA, but there were so many other issues, the atty. never pursued that. Now she is worried about those funds, but the atty. assures her that retirements cannot be touched in the bankruptcy and he apologized for putting it off so long and said he will get that money for her right away. From my online research on this and other sites, it looks to me like the money is safe as long as it remains in a retirement account, but if and when the attorney gets her half out for her, that she would then lose it to the trustee. But our atty. insists it will be safe and that she can use it to pay him for the rest of the bankruptcy, to pay our accountant an outstanding debt we have with him and the state taxes from 2006 she owes. (We have no idea how much money she is getting, by the way.)
Another question we have is the mortgage...which is the main reason we are filing, to save our home. We have 3 mortgages. Based on our 2007 appraisal our home is worth 99,000, but I understand that a current appraisal would probably be lower because of the market. Our total owed for all three mortgages is less than that appraisal (50K + 15K + 13K) so it would appear we have equity in it. I understand we have exemptions, but my question is can we really have the second and third mortgages "stripped?" From what I've read on this site our attorney is either not clear on our situation or told us wrong...since our first mortgage balance is considerably less than the appraised value. (By the way, we tried to sell for about a year, but there are just no buyers)
Just to give you a broad picture. My net income is $2500/month. My wife gets $600 in child support. I pay $750 in child support. Our mortgages are $1050/month. Our car payment is $350. Our insurance is $300. We have no credit cards except for one I pay in lieu of alimony that was my exwife's with $1200 outstanding (I've paid two bigger ones off.) We have about $5,000 in unpaid medical bills. My wife owes $8,000 on her student loan (we know that one doesn't go away, but the atty. said she might get a hardship forgiveness since she can no longer work due to illness.) And another $400/month to finance companies. My wife owes $1500 to KY state taxes. We owe $1200 in 2008 delinquent property taxes. We owe $1200 to our acct. (but the atty. said we would pay the accountant outside of the repayment plan because his is an ongoing relationship/bill we have with him) We had no problem paying these bills until last year when my wife became ill and lost her job. (She has too few work credits to qualify for SSD because she worked as a school teacher and did not pay into SS for 5 of the past 10 years.) My wife also has a $20000 deficiency balance on a car that was repo'ed when she lost her job.
I'm afraid our numbers just don't add up. If the 2nd and 3rd mortgages cannot be stripped and relatively few of our debts are unsecured...I don't think I have the income to support these pymts. I am having doubts about whether bankruptcy is going to help us really.
I probably have other questions, but I am just a little overwhelmed by all of this. Thank you for your help.
My wife and I are filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We have already retained our lawyer and began paying him. We met with him for a couple of hours last week but we still have a few things we are unclear about and sort of having doubts if we understood him correctly or if he is clear on the situation.
First of all, my wife could file Chapter 7, but I can't because I filed Chapter 7 only a couple of years ago. Our attorney said that not enough time has passed for me to get my debts discharged and I would have to sign acknowledging that, but that when enough time passes I can drop this 13 and do another one with the debts being discharged. And that my wife's could be "flipped to a Chapter 7." This has us very confused.
Also, this is the same attorney who handled a property settlement for my wife a few years ago. She was awarded half of her exhusband's 401K and IRA, but there were so many other issues, the atty. never pursued that. Now she is worried about those funds, but the atty. assures her that retirements cannot be touched in the bankruptcy and he apologized for putting it off so long and said he will get that money for her right away. From my online research on this and other sites, it looks to me like the money is safe as long as it remains in a retirement account, but if and when the attorney gets her half out for her, that she would then lose it to the trustee. But our atty. insists it will be safe and that she can use it to pay him for the rest of the bankruptcy, to pay our accountant an outstanding debt we have with him and the state taxes from 2006 she owes. (We have no idea how much money she is getting, by the way.)
Another question we have is the mortgage...which is the main reason we are filing, to save our home. We have 3 mortgages. Based on our 2007 appraisal our home is worth 99,000, but I understand that a current appraisal would probably be lower because of the market. Our total owed for all three mortgages is less than that appraisal (50K + 15K + 13K) so it would appear we have equity in it. I understand we have exemptions, but my question is can we really have the second and third mortgages "stripped?" From what I've read on this site our attorney is either not clear on our situation or told us wrong...since our first mortgage balance is considerably less than the appraised value. (By the way, we tried to sell for about a year, but there are just no buyers)
Just to give you a broad picture. My net income is $2500/month. My wife gets $600 in child support. I pay $750 in child support. Our mortgages are $1050/month. Our car payment is $350. Our insurance is $300. We have no credit cards except for one I pay in lieu of alimony that was my exwife's with $1200 outstanding (I've paid two bigger ones off.) We have about $5,000 in unpaid medical bills. My wife owes $8,000 on her student loan (we know that one doesn't go away, but the atty. said she might get a hardship forgiveness since she can no longer work due to illness.) And another $400/month to finance companies. My wife owes $1500 to KY state taxes. We owe $1200 in 2008 delinquent property taxes. We owe $1200 to our acct. (but the atty. said we would pay the accountant outside of the repayment plan because his is an ongoing relationship/bill we have with him) We had no problem paying these bills until last year when my wife became ill and lost her job. (She has too few work credits to qualify for SSD because she worked as a school teacher and did not pay into SS for 5 of the past 10 years.) My wife also has a $20000 deficiency balance on a car that was repo'ed when she lost her job.
I'm afraid our numbers just don't add up. If the 2nd and 3rd mortgages cannot be stripped and relatively few of our debts are unsecured...I don't think I have the income to support these pymts. I am having doubts about whether bankruptcy is going to help us really.
I probably have other questions, but I am just a little overwhelmed by all of this. Thank you for your help.
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