New here....Attorney is no help!!

[losingmymind]

I filed chapter 13 approx. 6 months ago. Due to poor decisions, I aquired a large amount of credit card debit. Do to my income I can not qualify for a chapter 7. I own no property, everything was sold prior to my filing for bankruptcy. I am currently living with my girlfriend in her home and my name is not on anything. When i filed chapter 13, the attorney recommended that claim her and her two children as dependents with also having my two children part time. Her income is less than a quarter of mine and was put into the plan as an additional income. But she has a very large house note and i was contributing a large amount towards paying it. I also pay a large amount of child support for my two children. With all of this my chapter 13 payment is very resonable in my opinion. Recently, we have decided that our relationship is not working out. I need to find a new place to live. I work over 3 hours away from the home I am living in with my now ex-girlfriend. She told me I can take as long as I need to find something. I own a travel trailer outright that i stay in during the week while I am working and come home on weekends. I pay a monthly rent for the lot where it is in and that was included as an expense in the chapter 13. I am currently looking for an apartment or rent house near where i work. Where I am living is a rural area and the housing expenses are much cheaper than in the area where I work. Once I am able to find something it will only be me living there and my two children part time. I could always stay full time in the travel trailer if i had to but it is only maybe 200 sq ft.
I called the attorney to ask what my options were. They were very rude and said they cannot deal in what ifs and they got me the lowest possible payment i could get. I told them i understand that my payment may increase since my I would be living alone and not having as many dependents. They said well you will not have your girlfriends income. I understand this but her income is only a portion of mine. She has a large house not from her previous marriage that i was mostly paying completely. With the money I was giving her a month I can find me a nice place and pay utilites easly and pay more a month for the chapter 13. I am worrried that if I get something that is too expensive i will not be able to pay the chapter 13 with whatever it is going to be. Is there a rule that limits what your maximum rent can be for a single person. I was just trying to get this question answered so I can deicide what options I have. I think after the amount of money I am paying they should at least answer better than we cant deal in what ifs??

[LadyInTheRed]

Welcome to BK Forum!

As long as your rent is reasonable for the area you live in, you shouldn't have a problem. Just don't go rent a palace. Get something that you can afford and is suitable for a single person with 2 kids that live with him part time.

Your attorney is right not to deal with what ifs, even if he could be more polite in explaining that to you. The fee you agreed to pay probably doesn't include modification of your plan and if he gets to into the what ifs, it is likely to just cost you money in additional attorney fees to run numbers based on projections now and then run them again after you know what the real numbers are.

There really is nothing that can be done about your BK until after your situation has changed and you know what your new expenses are. Find yourself a place to live and get settled. Then contact your attorney and let him know that your living situation has changed. He can then advise you on whether you have to modify your plan or can just continue making your current payment. It sounds like he was trying to tell you that it will be a wash financially and you will not have to modify. But, he can't determine that for sure at this point.

[kornellred]

Your situation is too complex for anyone on the forum to give advice on how to handle your personal affairs - not that you are asking for advice in that respect. You are entitled to file a motion for modification of your Chapter 13 plan based upon your own income and expenses. No one can guess at what your modified payments will be unless the calculations are made according to the accepted formula. Tell your attorney that you want to modify your plan - their attitude is irrelevant since you will be charged a goodly sum for the process, and your attorney really has no personal stake in the outcome unless they cheat (very little chance of that, since there is no point). Then after you run the numbers, decide if it makes sense. If you change your mind, you will still be paying for the un-filed motion.

[losingmymind]

I was not asking him if my payment would increase and by how much. I am assuming it will since I will not have 3 people living with me. I was only trying to get an idea of what I can spend on rent. I do not know if it goes off of the actual cost or if there is a set allowance. I have read that it you are given an allowance based on census data for the county you are living in. When I checked that data it is showing about $300 a month less than anything I have seen available. I understand I can not go rent a luxury apartment but renting something is going to cost more than the census data is showing no matter what. I understand that nothing can be done until I actually find something and have hard numbers to run and that is will cost to modify the plan. I am just trying to make sure that if I get something that I wont end up not being able to afford the rent after I modify due to not having the dependants.