Discharge question

[muzzey58]

My husband and I filed our 13 in November 2006. The plan was confirmed in April 2007. We had some hardships along the way. Our case was at 80% repayment and $1600. We weren't living at all. The first attorney made a mess of our case and we fired him and hired our current attorney.

My new attorney pushed for a hardship modification. I had to quit work so we lost my income that was part of the original filing. We managed to lower the repayment to 55% and $1100 a month. We had some issues with the IRS owing money so that balance was included in our repayment plan.

We got our yearly payment notice from the Trustee. According to the letter it said that it would take another 18 months to complete the repayment plan. That's 6 months longer than the 5 year filing date. All the secured or priority claims are 100% paid to date. We will owe the IRS this year but we can pay them with our state tax refund. The rest of the plan is now just unsecured debt. Will the case be discharged without all the unsecured debt being paid? My attorney is on vacation and can't be reached and the paralegal wasn't 100% sure what will happen.

The original debt was $100,000 and 70% of the debt was unsecured. As I said earlier, all the original secured and priority debt is paid. We have paid $62,000 into the case. We could have bought a nice double wide home for that much money.
The credit laws in this country need repelled. Just my opinion.

Thanks for reading my post.

[RunningMan]

I don't understand your question. Are you asking what would happen if you stopped paying right now and your case was dismissed? If so, your creditors will start trying to collect from you again. They will be entitled to the original balance, plus interest and penalties. They could sue you for it and sieze your property or garnish your wages or they may just charge it off. It depends on the creditor.

If you didn't file for bankruptcy, you would have still had to pay $30,000 to the IRS and it is unlikely the other unsecured creditors you owed $70,000 to would have left you alone. I know you are being facetious, but I doubt you would have been able to pay cash for a double wide trailer. The credit laws are what they are. I don't blame them for my problems, I created those myself. Although there were some circumstances I couldn't control, it wasn't my creditors fault either.

[muzzey58]

We are planning to finish our plan. It's just we thought it would this year when we finished the 5 year payment plan. It turns out that Ohio bases it on the confirmation when to start the repayment process. That means we have another 15 months left. We might not pay all our unsecured debt. I was wondering if we would get a final discharge and what would happen to any debt that wasn't completely paid off. The bankruptcy was filed because of an old credit card company. My husband owed money from 1994 on the card in the amount of $1000. He lost his job in 2002 and was unemployed for 15 months. He lived off his 401K and credit cards and ended up losing his home. The debt is basically his from his foreclosure and old credit cards. The only asset we have is our car and home furnishings. We've paid over $60000 on our plan so far but still owe around $16000. We pay $1150 at 55% which is still high for unsecured debt. All of our priority and secured debt is 100% paid off. Thanks

[RunningMan]

If you finish the plan and there is still unpaid unsecure debt that was part of the plan, it will be discharged and you will not owe any more money to those creditors. If you have incurred new debt since your filing date, you will still be responsible for that debt. It seems a little unfair to have to pay more than 60 months if you were making payments before your confirmation. I was under the impression that the maximum term of a chapter 13 plan was 60 months. Hopefully your attorney will be able to help with that when he gets back from vacation.

[newbie2]

If you finish the plan and there is still unpaid unsecure debt that was part of the plan, it will be discharged and you will not owe any more money to those creditors. If you have incurred new debt since your filing date, you will still be responsible for that debt. It seems a little unfair to have to pay more than 60 months if you were making payments before your confirmation. I was under the impression that the maximum term of a chapter 13 plan was 60 months. Hopefully your attorney will be able to help with that when he gets back from vacation.

Michigan is like this also - we pay for 60 months from the date of confirmation, and if confirmation takes 3 or 4 months..well that's the way it is (paying for more than 60 months)