Payment Questions

[cc8225]

I have my 341 this Wed. A few questions... My plan is set for 36 months with a 300.00 payment. I am attempting to strip my second and third. If successful my lawyer said the trustee will add the 589.00 that i was paying on my second and 500.00 i was paying on my third to my monthly obligation bringing my monthly total to 1389. My lawyer said that the 300.00 that i am currently paying may be objected to making my payments even higher. My first mortgage is 2100 a month. If these payments become to high can i ask the court to spread out my plan for 5 years to lower my payment?

[justbroke]

Yes, you can have the payments extended to 60 months. However, I wouldn't do that unless you have to. A 60-month Chapter 13 is a LONG TIME compared to a 36-month Chapter 13!!!

Why would you want to increase the plan duration anyhow? if you're not paying the 2nd and 3rd anymore, that was money you weren't getting in your pocket anyhow. It makes no sense to increase your plan duration and I don't think it's possible anyhow, and here's why.

Your payment is based on your payments to secured debts, priority debts, and the rest is your DISPOSABLE monthly income (DMI). You won't be able to extend the plan just because you don't want to pay your DMI into the plan. The reason to increase a Plan's duration is because you're paying some priority tax debt, a car, arrearages on a home, etc, and need more time to cure those things or pay them off. The Plan duration is not increased because you don't like the calculated DMI.

Besides, if you went to 60-months, it might push you to a 100% plan... when you could have been done earlier. Trust me... stick with 36-months if you can!

[cc8225]

Hi,

I have not been paying on my 2nd and 3rd for several months assuming that they will be stripped. If they are stripped the trustee will add that 500 and 589 payment to the 300.00 making my payment 1389 for 36 months including a 2100 a month mortg. Trust me i want this over with asap but i hope the payments are reasonable enough for me to make it work.

[LadyInTheRed]

To put it another way, streching out the length of the plan would not decrease your DMI, so it would not decrease your montly payments to the Trustee. If an expense goes away and there are no new or increased expenses to replace it, your DMI is going to increase in the same amount your expenses decreased and so will your plan payments.