Not a good interview today

[tripper]

We had our interview today, and after watching the interviewer flip back and forth in our paperwork, and scribble here and there while tapping on his calculator, he pops up and says 'The payment amount I am coming up with is quite a bit different from what your attorney sent in.' <great>
My attorney says $715, and the interviewer says $900.

Is this normal?
What now?

Our creditors meeting is next week.

[walkthaplank]

Who was the interview with? Was it the trustee or trustee's counsel? You need to find out how they came up with that number. Your attorney should get some sort of trustee report detailing how they got to that number.

What is normal? Your gross income-payroll taxes-allowed expenses= monthly disposable income (your payment).

[lrprn]

Is this normal?

Yes. In Ch 13 there's often disagreement between your lawyer and trustee around something in your proposed payment plan. Just because the interviewer (who I'm assuming works for your trustee's office) thinks your disposable income is higher than your lawyer did only means they disagree. Now the give-and-take between your lawyer and the trustee about how each arrived at the figures they did will start.

What now?

Your lawyer is going to represent your interests while the discrepancy is discussed and most likely resolved in a friendly manner between your lawyer and the trustee.

Our creditors meeting is next week.

Hang in there. Depending on what discrepanies the interviewer is seeing, the odds are that whatever it is, all will be ironed out before your confirmation meeting. And in the unusual situation when it isn't, as hard as it is to not be confirmed, it really doesn't affect you at all. You just keep making your proposed payments on time while the wheels of the court grind along slowly at their own glacial pace

No matter how much worrying you do, it won't speed things up or change the eventual outcome one bit. Better to spend all that energy on making the best budget possible and finding ways to save as much as possible as quickly as you can to build up your emergency fund.

[MSbklawyer]

I've never heard of an interview like that. And I certainly wouldn't let a client go to one without me being there. Who was this interviewing you?

[Flamingo]

Interview with who? MSBKLawyer is correct - please explain...

[tripper]

The interview was at the trustees office. It was not the trustee, but someone who works at there office.
I am sorry I did not clarify, I thought this was a normal proceeding.
A few days after we filed, we got a letter with the time and date for the creditors meeting, and it stated to immediately contact the trustees office to set up our interview, which had to be done before the creditors meeting.
Our attorney told us in advance that they would not be there, and no other attorneys were there for the other people that were having their meetings that morning.

I expected it to be a quick meeting, but we waited from 8:30 until they saw us at 11:15, and then we were in the interview until about 12:00 noon.

We were asked general questions, and the interviewer went thru all of our paperwork. He was asking and calculating the same things that we did with our attorney, but he came up with a different payment.

This is middle district, NC.

Thanx for all your help so far!
Ron

[Flamingo]

Sounds like a paralegal going through items that will be turned over to the Trustee for further review and the paralegal pointing our or indicating/catching items that need to be discussed/reviewed. This must be something done in your district to assist the Trustee. Contact your attorney about your concerns.

[tripper]

Sounds like a paralegal going through items that will be turned over to the Trustee for further review and the paralegal pointing our or indicating/catching items that need to be discussed/reviewed. This must be something done in your district to assist the Trustee. Contact your attorney about your concerns.

I have contacted them, but they won't be back in until Monday morning. I posted here wanting a bit of reassurance that this is not uncommon.
Thank you!

[woeisme]

sorry, never heard of a pre-341 interview before. but it is common for the trustee to think that you have different disposable income than the attorney's submitted plan. Maybe they think some of your expenses are too high (is anything over IRS levels?) or the local rules and standards are such that you need to fight for some of the expenses in your budget. Your attorney will know more about the local customs, sorry we can't help, but as you will find, it seems like every district has it's own weird ways of doing things and this interview thing isn't something most places do.

[anxiouseric]

Hope everything went well with u I'm from middle district NC 2 im schedule for interview jan.26 im kinda nervous hope my payment plan still same they wont change it .

[rrockinggramma]

status conference?