chapter 13 limit problem!!!!!

[IamOld]

Well guys, the second I "relaxed" and thought all set for filing next week Ch 13 for spouse, turns out I underestimaded student loan balance by about 15K. So spouse is BARELY under the Ch 13 limit...emailed atty to put me in Ch 13 if need be (he's got a plan for us, and one of us have to do Ch 13 - ME - I am at least 15K below the limit - at least that's Plan B.

Anyway...I suggested a "plan" to atty - just in case - (and I mentioned this before on a thread here and there) - we have 6K in financing for our HVAC unit (old one died) whose contract says it is a SECURED loan, and we have about 1700K from Dell Financial which also says it's a secured loan.

In THIS instance, it would be to our benefit to list these as secured - does anyone sees a problem if atty goes by the LETTER of the contract and lists them as secured. Would there be pushback from Trustee? I would say there wouldn't be pushback from these two creditors, after all, because they'd get paid!

BUT and however - would this matter to the Trustee? It doesn't change how much we pay to Trustee AND his commission....BECAUSE if we can move this almost 8K to secured there is room - otherwise the room is like 700 dollars because of stupid student loans.

What does the collective wisdom think? Please let me sleep tonight!!!

[catleg]

You will have no problem listing those creditors as secured.

Also if you file separate cases you both get to use the debt limits individually, assuming most of your debts are not joint accounts this usually works in your favor, although it causes something of a paperwork nightmare for the trustee.

[IamOld]

You will have no problem listing those creditors as secured.

Also if you file separate cases you both get to use the debt limits individually, assuming most of your debts are not joint accounts this usually works in your favor, although it causes something of a paperwork nightmare for the trustee.

THANK YOU!!!! I sure hope so! Well, it's going to have to be separate, but not at the same time...I think my atty wants spouse's plan to be confirmed first, then do me (maybe even a Ch 7 for me, BUT in reality I know it'll be a Ch 13 UNLESS!!!! I get a job as a teacher this fall - long long shot - but then I'll definitely qualify for a 7!!!)

I'd say about 40% of our debt is separate - but we need the separate filing otherwise together we're over the CH 13 limit - although I've seen arguments from the ABA bankruptcy forum where Trustees forced separation of joint 13 cases if SEPARATELY the spouses qualified but not together, and the ABA argued that such separation really does only two things - more money for attorneys and one more filing fee for the court...

Still sound ok?????

Again, a million thanks!!!!!