lawyer won't let us amend chapter 13 to keep the house

[puggymoo]

Bar date has past . Our house that was originally surrendered only because he said we should .House still hasn't foreclosed because the process starts over. We are in a 100%payback plan. Since they can still seek a deficiency judgement and amend a claim for 110k what difference does it make if we decide to keep the house. Why pay the tiered payments 1140/1400/1800 for 4 years if we can end the chapter 13 in less than 2 years and still have a home.
MY lawyer will not let us amend the plan to keep the house. We only have 1500 in unsecured debt that filed claims (house filed secured but they can still amend). The lawyer has already been paid his fees. We have 3800 available in account to finish paying the unsecured and could put the rest to backpayments. The paralegal keeps telling me our payments would go up (WHY) if we have no other debt? we have about
18k in back payments due.

[newbie2]

Bar date has past . Our house that was originally surrendered only because he said we should .House still hasn't foreclosed because the process starts over. We are in a 100%payback plan. Since they can still seek a deficiency judgement and amend a claim for 110k what difference does it make if we decide to keep the house. Why pay the tiered payments 1140/1400/1800 for 4 years if we can end the chapter 13 in less than 2 years and still have a home.
MY lawyer will not let us amend the plan to keep the house. We only have 1500 in unsecured debt that filed claims (house filed secured but they can still amend). The lawyer has already been paid his fees. We have 3800 available in account to finish paying the unsecured and could put the rest to backpayments. The paralegal keeps telling me our payments would go up (WHY) if we have no other debt? we have about
18k in back payments due.

You owe $18,000 in mortgage arrears. You have to be able to pay that full amount in order to be successful in your Chapter 13 plan (and also make your mortgage payments). If you don't like what the paralegal is telling you then get another appointment for the attorney and ask for it all to be explained. Good luck to you.

[justbroke]

There are just too many questions to provide an informed answer. Your plan can be changed, through a process known as modification. This happens all the time. You really need to consider why you would want to keep the home. It would not be discharged and if you are $100K underwater, that's not a very good business decision.

I also don't believe it's so simple that you'll be able to buy out of the plan since you have all the arrears.

[HHM]

I agree with Justbroke, too many unknowns from our perspective to hazard a guess. But yes, your payments would go up because you need to pay 100% of the mortgage arrears and restart making your mortgage payment. IF the attorney is really saying "no", it is probably a feasibility issue, meaning, there is not really enough income to pull it off. But who knows.

[puggymoo]

wouldn't the payment going into the plan go towards paying the arrears. The reason we are asking is if they have the right to amend the claim and come after us for 90-110k why not pay arrears thru the plan. Only have 1500 in unsecured that filed claims. We have 1000 that goes out for secured loans outside of the plan. I guess I don't understand and am being supid.
1 account balance 3653
2. lawyer balance 0
3 unsecured claims 1800
4. unknow def
on house

[justbroke]

There are just too many issues. Why would you want to keep an underwater home, unless you can lien strip. If you do lien strip, the stripped mortgage becomes an unsecured debt. If that ends up being $100K in unsecured debt, your unsecured just went up. This is why I believe there is more than just thinking that paying the arrears is enough. I would not personally recommend doing that if you are $100K underwater, unless we're talking about a $1,000,000 home that is only worth $900,000.

[puggymoo]

No our house only has a first. It has a possible deficiency of 90-110k.They can amend the secured claim and collect the deficiency and they can amend out plan and extend it to 60 months. We don't have any secured(unless the house)or any other unsecured creditors to pay since the other big ones did charge offs. IF we have to payback that 90-110k deficiency wouldn't it be alot easier to payback the backpayments of 18k and be done with chapter 13. Then the payments after 18 months could go to the principal of the house and we would still have a write off.

[HHM]

Honestly, if you are that upside down and only have have one mortgage, your lawyer is doing you a favor, walk from the house.

[justbroke]

I agree. I would never recommend someone "keep" a home that is more than 10% underwater... in a Chapter 13. Best to take the advantage of a Chapter 13 discharge, and just discharge that debt. I wrote earlier, that if your home has a $1,000,000 balance and is worth $900,000, then I'm okay with you keeping it. However, if it's a mortgage balance of $500,000 on a home worth $400,000... it's time to walk.

You must start thinking of this as a business decision. Think about whether you have $100K to just light a match to?

[jetsfan2010]

I agree. I would never recommend someone "keep" a home that is more than 10% underwater... in a Chapter 13. Best to take the advantage of a Chapter 13 discharge, and just discharge that debt. I wrote earlier, that if your home has a $1,000,000 balance and is worth $900,000, then I'm okay with you keeping it. However, if it's a mortgage balance of $500,000 on a home worth $400,000... it's time to walk.

You must start thinking of this as a business decision. Think about whether you have $100K to just light a match to?

I agree with justbroke. I did not think of my finances as business decisions at first, but that has started to change pretty quickly. Any perceived collateral(house/car) etc that you are upside down in by more than 10-15 percent of the value really doesnt make sense to stay in a 13 for.