The wait was stressful, but worth it

[cwillie]

[lrprn]

Why do they always wait til the last minute to do anything? We had been on them for months about our inability to pay the full amount due to husband's job loss!

When you say "on them", what have you been doing to get your lawyer's attention? Did you call the office and make a face-to-face appointment to get things settled? Did you call every day and leave messages? Did you email every day? Understand that your trustee is blaming *you* for not making your payments, not your lawyer, and your case is 10 days away from being dismissed - that's a very bad thing.

Get over to your lawyer's office tomorrow and sit there until he/she speaks with you and comes up with a plan to deal with this situation immediately. This is too important to leave to chance.

Agree that your lawyer has been remiss not addressing this with your trustee until now. Keep us posted about what happens once your lawyer does get in touch with your trustee about your job loss and need to amend your plan or convert to Ch 7.

[cwillie]

Yes, we contacted our lawyer's office a minimum of three times per week, via e-mail and phone (sometimes two or three times per day!) with the news of DH's job loss and our inability to pay and what do we do. Attorney waited for the trustee to do a motion to dismiss before addressing the issue. We were in a panic of course, but attorney was not. Trustee agreed to "forgive" arrearages (should have a copy of the order shortly), but we have to adhere strictly to our plan - which we have always tried to do - or we will be dismissed. Attorney said if we are dismissed, we would not be able to refile for a 13 without an increase in income, as we are at 0% payback to unsecureds right now. We are just paying our home mortgage, arrears and second mortgage in the plan and that's all. Cars are outside of the plan. We would only be able to file Chapter 7, but we are not quite ready to give up our home just yet, as our plan is doable. We fell behind as DH had to apply for an extension of unemployment benefits. While we were patiently waiting (3 weeks), I finally told him to call, that this shouldn't take this long. He called and was informed he had to reopen his claim! This took another week, thus we have been playing catch up. Things are looking up though.

[BCA2009]

cwillie, why do you think you would lose your home if you filed chap 7? Are you able to make your house aand car payments now? If so, and you qualifty for a Chap 7, I would certainly look into it.

Good luck!