still trying to collect on a discharged case

[lunch33]

the city treasurer is still demanding 3300.00 for back property taxes that was included and paid through our chp.13 case. We thought it was against the law for a creditor to ask for additional money on any claim, once you have been discharged. Our lawyer wants to reopen our chp.13 case to resolve this issue. At this point we have lost trust in the whole chp13 system. We're afraid if we reopen our case we could be making things worse. What's the pros and cons of reopening a chp13 case? Can't they figure out what went wrong without reopening the case? We are trying to rebuilt our credit, but chp13 kept haunting us. We have been discharged since Jan 2011. Seven months later recieve letter asking for additional 3300. What are we to do now? thanks you for reading.

[justbroke]

Your attorney is proceeding the correct way. Re-opening the case to determine that the amount was in fact discharge is the right thing to do. Sometimes, in limited cases, Trustees have not paid some secured creditors; the reconciliation and audit is supposed to catch these things. I'm assuming, since your attorney is re-opening, that the City did in fact file a claim or that you filed a claim on their behalf. I also assume that they were included in the plan as a secured creditor.

Re-opening isn't going to cause you any trouble. It is re-opened for the "limited" purpose of determining that the item was discharged or otherwise paid in full. It doesn't affect your overall discharge at all. The reason to re-open is because there is definitely some "disagreement" over whether it was paid or not. The only way to resolve this is to re-open and then file motions to get it in front of the Judge.

Do you know if your attorney is re-opening to file a complaint on dischargeability or just a Motion for Violation of the permanent discharge injunction? If your attorney is doing this for free, then s/he's probably going to get paid based on any sanctions granted.