CH13: To catch up or not to Catch up.

[rjl0206]

To all,

Just wanted to ask if I fell one month behind on Chapter 13 payments and Im going to be converting to chapter 7 on october, does it matter to catch up on the one missed payment?. My lawyer knows about this last time we spoke but forgot to mention if I should catch up or not. Awaiting his callback now, he's been very busy with a good amount of forclosures ongoing in NJ. I just dont want the conversion to be in jeopardy because of one missed payment. Thanks all.

[HHM]

Since October is not that far away, so probably no need to catch up. In fact, to convert, you do need to show "changed" circumstances, so not being able to make the payment actually helps. However, you still want to run this by your attorney. Trustee procedures vary. Typically, I would not expect the trustee to bat and eyelash at 1 missed payment, at least, not very quickly.

[rjl0206]

Thanks HHM. Attorney also said it wouldn't matter now. Extra cash I can use for kids new school clothes, this has always been a very expensive time for us.

[walkthaplank]

When we were planning to convert our attorney told us to stop making payments 2 months prior to conversion date because it usually takes the trustee that long to file the motion to dismiss. We used one month's trustee payment to pay the attorney's fee to do the motion to convert. If you are in a confirmed plan, any money you pay the trustee gets paid out to your creditors, so any money you pay while you are planning to convert is money down the drain. Our attorney filed the motion to convert just before the time to respond to the motion to dismiss was up.

[rjl0206]

thank you guys!.