How difficult is it to get payment suspended for a few months?

[cbmmom5]

Hello,

Could you please tell me the process we would need to go through to request that two or three of our monthly payments be suspended? I know we will be able to manage after a short reprieve. Both our moms were in ICU at different locations and we had to do a lot of traveling to be with them. We also have our car insurance and house insurance due at the same time. I know we need to budget for these things on a monthly basis and we do, however the amount for both of them is just too much to be covered right now. We were also taken off of budget billing for our power bill so we now have a $1,000 balance we must pay before we can be set back up on budget billing.

We have made all our monthly payments since June 2010 and we will still make them if a reprieve is not given but we will get behind on other monthly bills. We are trying to keep our finances in balance.

Thank you for responding

[frogger]

I don't know exactly how the process works, but it can be done.

[Pandora]

you need to talk to your attorney first and foremost - and see if you're able to do so. I will tell you however, that being in court yesterday (4 debtors out of 40 attorneys in the room) there were a few cases where the debtors sought to do what you are requesting, and they succeeded - however.... read on:

In one case yesterday, the trustee was seeking to dismiss a Ch. 13, provided background to the judge on what transpired thus far (i.e. he allowed it for no more than 3 months, and at that time told the debtor's attorney that while a motion to defer payments would be granted, that generally from what he'd seen once that happens, the debtors stay behind and end up seeking dismissal or to convert). Trustee continued on, telling the judge that after those 3 months were given, the debtors called their attorney stating they had extra bills /expenses and could not make the payments, could they have another extension (to which the Trustee said no). In the end, the case was dismissed for non-payment.

So if you're allowed to suspend your payments for XX months, you need to be 100% positive that you absolutely can make every payment, every bill / expense (like electric bill...) and budget for those unforseen circumstances that arise, else you may end up getting dismissed. You're not supposed to fall behind on any bills while in your Ch. 13.

[BigJohn]

Are you in a plan that is less then 60 months?

[CCB35]

In Northeast Tn,apparently it was very difficult.My attorney said a couple of times that the trustee wouldnt even go for it.I tried one time when my wife was going to be in the hospital.I was responsible for making the bk payments and my wife would be responsible for the regular bills.He wouldnt even contact her about .We scraped through barely

[woeisme]

was pretty easy for us, we called attorney (hubby became disabled and we needed a break while paperwork was filed to start getting disability pay) and she submitted paperwork and it was done, took about 30 days from when I called lawyer to when it became in effect, but trustee returned the 1 payment we made while waiting, which really helped us get through the months until disability pay was finalized. And also submitted a motion to reduce payment at the same time due to change of income, so when we started paying again it was $400/month instead of $1100, and the whole thing took about 20 minutes total on phone with lawyer to fix up new schedules of income and expenses and then she took it from there. So i guess it really just depends on your trustee/local practices.