Unforseen Expenses, to report or not to report?

[mylife]

We are not yet confirmed but are 2 payments in. We just had to spend $350 to get brakes put on my car. Should we report this to the attorney or is it minor?

Thanks

[momofthree]

Expenses like that should already be built into your plan payment under your transportation expense. It does not need to be reported. Now, if your roof caves in and you need to put $10k into it and therefore need to request a forbearance on your bk payments for a few months, THAT needs to be reported and your attorney will need to submit a request. Regular annual maintenance, medical expenses, etc. are to be expected and should already be built into your budget. It is imperative for you to stick to your budget and set aside the additional money built into your plan for when these "unforeseen" expenses arise.

[jetsfan2010]

I agree with momofthree. If your attorney did not build that in, then you need to talk to them asap.

[justbroke]

As a former Chapter 13 debtor, I had to put two new tires on the car, 3 weeks into my Chapter 13. Then, about 7 months in, a very expensive septic line issue! You must be able to save money during your Chapter 13. You must stick to a budget that allows you to save at least $100/month. This is actually built into the plan for your car, since you get the car ownership allowance ($489/month) and a car "operation" allowance ($230+/month depending on city/region). That $230+/month should cover these sorts of things.

However, since you just started, it is tough to have an issue right out of the gate, without the chance to have already started building a savings.

I'm more concerned that you entered into a Chapter 13 with existing car issues. Does this car have other issues? How old is it?

[mylife]

My car is 2006 and not that old. It wasn't major just wanted to know if that was something that we should report. On another note, I had my deductions set at 10 so that fed taxes would be minimal which was part of the 6 month's worth of paystubs. Do they take that into consideration and once I change it back to 2 it won't make a difference?

Thanks!

[justbroke]

Your question depends on whether the Maryland District requires all tax returns and refunds to be submitted to the Trustee. Here in Florida, our Confirmation Orders usually include a paragraph that requires the turnover of all tax refunds. I would speak to my attorney on whether Maryland requires tax refunds to be surrendered before I would change the exemptions.

[mylife]

We can keep all exempt returns and we have a lot of exemptions we can take. We were able to keep our state return but the fed return was applied to our balance due.

[woeisme]

i don't think your trustee is going to be willing to do anything about a normal car repair bill, so nothing to be gained by telling lawyer about it, but just wanted to say sorry that it happened so soon into the CH 13, that sucks! I really hope your plan is livable, and by that I don't just mean having enough to scrape by but being able to put some aside for these kinds of things in the future. We're in year 4 and I can tell you, stuff always seems to come up! So far we've managed, although we did have to do a 3-month forbearance and a plan modification when it was too much to handle. Heck, just since January this year we had #1 furnace broke down- $750, #2 car broke down - $250, #3 burst water pipe - $150, #4 fridge repair - $150, #5 blown out tire on minivan- $80 #6 furnace broke down again! -$450 #7 laptop died - $350. Thank heavens the trustee lets us keep our tax refund, which covered everything so we didn't have to spend out our entire savings nest egg, which is at $2000. I was really counting on doubling our savings with that tax refund... but oh well, could be a lot worse! at least we had both the savings to pay for these things when they happened then the tax $ to replace the savings, there have been times in our plan when we couldn't have managed such a series of catastrophes. I am so grateful that the attorney fought for a reasonable plan for me, and that we have such a reasonable trustee who actually seems to be a rare breed who wants debtors to get through all 5 years rather than tightening the screwclamps down as hard as possible to get a few months payments then let you fail when you can't do it anymore.

[mylife]

That's understandable woeisme. We had gone into the 13 without doing much research first so we were paying atty fee, had paid credit cards and trying to catch up on our utilities. In hindsight we should have not paid the cards and paid our utilities down to zero. Our atty said that if we have an increase in income or decrease in expenses, don't bother calling unless our income decreases and our expenses increase. Our trustee is difficult and really giving us a hard time.

You had a significant decrease in your payment, was there a significant decrease in your income?

[lillymarlene]

I am not confirmed yet either, but I agree with woisme:

i don't think your trustee is going to be willing to do anything about a normal car repair bill, so nothing to be gained by telling lawyer about it,

I asked my attorney, right before I filed if everytime a vendor (I have a small business) shipped me something net 30, would I have to ask him each time? He said I wouldn't since it was considered normal business.

[IamOld]

Hello mylife - may I ask what you mean by a "difficult trustee?" I may be looking at a 13 very soon...(I hope)

[mylife]

My ttee is being difficult as in nit picky and questioning every single item on our file. She's saying we're not paying enough to unsecured, says we have too much excess money, says we're not providing requested documents and none of this is true. Another poster had complained about thier ttee in MD and I had wondered if it were the same as mine. Even the atty said she was being difficult. Each situation is different, Iamold, and I've seen other's plans confirmed in a breeze so your's may be also.

The question that I can seem to get an anwer on is since my 6 mos worth of paystubs had no fed taxes withheld due to 10 exemptions, will it make a difference when I change my deductions to 2 or zero.

[woeisme]

Yes, my husband went on disability in our plan, so definitely a significant decrease in income, his pay went down by 50%!