Need Help/Advice from an attorney!

[lostsailor]

In short. Have been in a chapter 13 plan for a little over a year. All payments on time. We decided to short sell our home and have found a buyer. The mortgage company is requesting a court order giving us permission to sell the home. So I go to our CHPT 13 attorney to request his services to seek the court order and for some reason he refuses to represent our request to the court and decides to seek an immediate motion to remove himself as our acting attorney. So now I have no representation other than myself. I have filed a complaing with the BAR. Does anyone know how I go about seeking the motion from the court myself to short sell our home. By the way our mortgage payments were paid outside our plan and were not included in the payments to the trustee. Finding another attorney is not an option at this point. Thanks for the responses. We have been left out in the cold with no representation.

[newbie2]

In short. Have been in a chapter 13 plan for a little over a year. All payments on time. We decided to short sell our home and have found a buyer. The mortgage company is requesting a court order giving us permission to sell the home. So I go to our CHPT 13 attorney to request his services to seek the court order and for some reason he refuses to represent our request to the court and decides to seek an immediate motion to remove himself as our acting attorney. So now I have no representation other than myself. I have filed a complaing with the BAR. Does anyone know how I go about seeking the motion from the court myself to short sell our home. By the way our mortgage payments were paid outside our plan and were not included in the payments to the trustee. Finding another attorney is not an option at this point. Thanks for the responses. We have been left out in the cold with no representation.

Something is missing....for an attorney to want to quit representing you something is going on.

What led up to your decision to sell your home via a short sale? Did you have any conversations with your attorney before you received the offer on your home?

[Flamingo]

What you did here was proceed on the sale of the home without first consulting with your attorney. Your attorney did nothing wrong; you did. You needed permission to proceed first from your trustee as to this sale; you went ahead and did it without permission and now you face Chapter 13 dismissal. The only thing you can do is to try to talk to your attorney to try to get you out of this; if your Plan has to be dismissed, you are back at square one where you started before you filed plus all fees and penalties added to unsecured creditors. If I were you, I would plead with your attorney to help you out but it's probably going to cost you more since there will be extra attorney fees to file Motions, etc. Best of luck to you.

[ccfriend]

What you did here was proceed on the sale of the home without first consulting with your attorney. Your attorney did nothing wrong; you did. You needed permission to proceed first from your trustee as to this sale; you went ahead and did it without permission and now you face Chapter 13 dismissal. The only thing you can do is to try to talk to your attorney to try to get you out of this; if your Plan has to be dismissed, you are back at square one where you started before you filed plus all fees and penalties added to unsecured creditors. If I were you, I would plead with your attorney to help you out but it's probably going to cost you more since there will be extra attorney fees to file Motions, etc. Best of luck to you.

My attorney told me that we could list our house for sale and then when there is an offer we would need to contact him for the write up of the motion to sell. We are not currently trying but I asked just in case.

[lostsailor]

Appreciate the advice. Let me clarify. I have been in contact with my attorney since the inception of even considering the short sale. Nothing has been done wrong and the trustee knows we are trying to short sell. There would of been an issue had we sold without court approval, but that is where we stand now. I am trying to get court approval on my own from the court and just dont know how to go about it. As for the attorneys quick departure I have no explanation. He stated he spoke with the trustee and did not want to get involved so he removed himself from representing me and has left us out in the cold. Nothing more to the story.

[newbie2]

Appreciate the advice. Let me clarify. I have been in contact with my attorney since the inception of even considering the short sale. Nothing has been done wrong and the trustee knows we are trying to short sell. There would of been an issue had we sold without court approval, but that is where we stand now. I am trying to get court approval on my own from the court and just dont know how to go about it. As for the attorneys quick departure I have no explanation. He stated he spoke with the trustee and did not want to get involved so he removed himself from representing me and has left us out in the cold. Nothing more to the story.

Wow, that's incredible that he would just walk out on you (so to speak). For him not to know how to go about this is unreal. (Sometimes I just shake my head at what we hear about some attorneys..)

I'm sorry this happened to you and I hope you can find someone else to take your case, and if not, that you can find the help that you need to tackle this on your own. Good luck to you.

Quick question: Is the short sale an arms length transaction? (Meaning is the buyer someone you don't know or have a relationship with?) The reason I am asking is because if it isn't an arms length transaction this could be the reason why your attorney doesn't want anything to do with it.

[lostsailor]

The buyer was on vacation and was taking a walk in my neighborhood when he saw the home. He made a cash offer on the house the next day and the mortgage company accepted within about a month or so. Definitely will be trying to secure the court order on my own to short sell. The hardest part of this was the unexpected departure of our attorney leaving us with no representation. Something we definitely did not anticipate. Hopefully somone out there will know what I have to do and what forms I need to present to the court t obatain the permission to short sell. My only fear is the mortgage company will not wait or the buyer will back out. My previous attorney has put us in such a bad position and I am doing everything on my end to pursue a legal complaint against him for unethical and misleading representation.

[Flamingo]

Thanks for the further explanation as to your matter and clearing that up. None of that was mentioned in your initial posting so many of us had to go by what you provided.

Well the Motion he filed to remove himself from your case will have the explanation why. All you have to do is call the Clerk of the BK court and ask to see a copy. There must be a reason for him to do that and I believe you are not divulging everything to us, but you can always check with the Clerk of the BK court as to what needs to be done for you to file that Motion. The problem is you are still represented by that attorney until that Motion goes through so there may be a delay. You may want to confer with another attorney as to what to do because your BK and this Short Sale are going to get a bit complicated...

[ColoradoBell]

When was the attorney's motion to withdraw filed? You should have a chance to file a response and object to his withdrawal as leaving you hanging. If he's paid up to date, then the court might deny his withdrawal...I had that happen once (not in a BK sitch.)

Good luck to you...hope you get that sale!

[lostsailor]

Thank you for all the responses. I did file a certified letter with the court to explain my side. I am still waiting on the judge to set a hearing date and I cant wait to share my side of the story and face this attorney in front of a neutral party. The lawyer never gave any explanation as to leaving me other than stating that getting a motion to do the short sale was to involved and not something she wanted to take on. Other than that I have no idea. At this point I have filed my complaint with the bar and just want to get rid of this attorney who has caused nothing but grief for my family by leaving us on our own. My main concern is how to file the court order to proceeed with the short sale so the mortgage company can set a closing date. Until this attorney is officially dismissed I am dead in the water. This part of the legal system has been a joke. The trustee will provide no information because technically I am still represented by this attorney and the attorney refuses to communicate now that the motion to dismiss has been filed with the court. I also have yet to receive anything official from this attorney stating her departure other than a voice mail stating she could not help me with what I needed. What a joke.