End of Chapter 13 Issue

[railroad436]

Last March, I paid off the last of my Chapter 13 BK and even got a refund check along with a letter from the trustee and court indicating the the final report was being filed. My attorney sent me the credit counseling and child support affidavits which we had notarized and gave back to our attorney. I never heard anything from anyone after that so I assumed everything went as planned.

Over the last year I havent had any reason to use my credit and hadnt checked my credit report (I know, I should have). I tried to get a new checking account last week and was denied. When I called the bank, they told me it was because of adverse information on my credit so I used annualcreditreport.com to pull my report to find that my bankruptcy is listed as dismissed versus discharged.

Anyone know what this means? This was nearly a year ago and I assumed everything had been taken care of. Over the course of my BK, I realized how unorganized my attorney is and calling her office is a nightmare so thought I might get some information so I am ready when I call.

13 data center still shows my case as closed/final report filed.

Any help you could provide would be appreciated!

[despritfreya]

If you have a copy of your DISCHARGE file a dispute with the credit reporting agencies and send each a copy. If you do not have a copy of your DISCHARGE contact your attny to get one. If one has not been issued you need to find out why and "fix" the problem.

Des.

[Floridagail]

Was It was a credit union. I had no trouble opening bank accounts right after Bkrptcy with Sun trust and Boa. However one Cu denied me.

[railroad436]

What I have is not a discharge but a letter stating that the Trustee is submitting his final report as well as an official final report and accounting of our case showing we paid all assets. I thought this was our discharge but it appears that an additional step was needed?

[despritfreya]

Call the Clerk of the Court to find out when the Discharge will be issued. It may have fallen through the cracks.

Des.

[YouMind]

What I have is not a discharge but a letter stating that the Trustee is submitting his final report as well as an official final report and accounting of our case showing we paid all assets. I thought this was our discharge but it appears that an additional step was needed?

Did you receive this from the trustee or your attorney? In my case, the Trustee released a "Trustee's Certification of Receipt and Disbursement of Final Chapter 13 Plan Payment". Upon receipt of this letter, your attorney has to file a motion for your discharge. In my case, my attorney had 21 days or else the case could be dismissed. These are the steps that I have followed thus far.

- I contacted my attorney before sending the final payment.
- I contacted my attorney after sending the final payment and sent them a copy of the cashiers check.
- I contacted my attorney after receiving the letter from the trustee.
- My attorney verified that they received the same letter and asked that I come by the office and sign some paperwork.
- I went to my attorney's office and signed the necessary paperwork so they could file for the motion of discharge.
- My attorney filed the motion of discharge and received a court date.
- The court date was last week and I am awaiting the paperwork from my attorney regarding the outcome.

Contact your attorney no matter how painful the process is and see if they filed for a motion for discharge.

[LadyInTheRed]

Did you receive this from the trustee or your attorney? In my case, the Trustee released a "Trustee's Certification of Receipt and Disbursement of Final Chapter 13 Plan Payment". Upon receipt of this letter, your attorney has to file a motion for your discharge. In my case, my attorney had 21 days or else the case could be dismissed. These are the steps that I have followed thus far.

- I contacted my attorney before sending the final payment.
- I contacted my attorney after sending the final payment and sent them a copy of the cashiers check.
- I contacted my attorney after receiving the letter from the trustee.
- My attorney verified that they received the same letter and asked that I come by the office and sign some paperwork.
- I went to my attorney's office and signed the necessary paperwork so they could file for the motion of discharge.
- My attorney filed the motion of discharge and received a court date.
- The court date was last week and I am awaiting the paperwork from my attorney regarding the outcome.

Contact your attorney no matter how painful the process is and see if they filed for a motion for discharge.

The procedure varies by district. Not all courts require that the attorney file a motion for discharge.

[railroad436]

Did you receive this from the trustee or your attorney? In my case, the Trustee released a "Trustee's Certification of Receipt and Disbursement of Final Chapter 13 Plan Payment". Upon receipt of this letter, your attorney has to file a motion for your discharge. In my case, my attorney had 21 days or else the case could be dismissed. These are the steps that I have followed thus far.

- I contacted my attorney before sending the final payment.
- I contacted my attorney after sending the final payment and sent them a copy of the cashiers check.
- I contacted my attorney after receiving the letter from the trustee.
- My attorney verified that they received the same letter and asked that I come by the office and sign some paperwork.
- I went to my attorney's office and signed the necessary paperwork so they could file for the motion of discharge.
- My attorney filed the motion of discharge and received a court date.
- The court date was last week and I am awaiting the paperwork from my attorney regarding the outcome.

Contact your attorney no matter how painful the process is and see if they filed for a motion for discharge.

I called my attorney today and they are going to look up my case and get back to me on Wednesday. Last thing I received was in May and it was from the court which the lady I spoke with at my attorney's office said the court take care of mailing all paperwork to the appropriate parties involved.

I'll keep you all updated so maybe there is something to learn from this.

[Pandora]

What I have is not a discharge but a letter stating that the Trustee is submitting his final report as well as an official final report and accounting of our case showing we paid all assets. I thought this was our discharge but it appears that an additional step was needed?

Did you do the final credit counseling course BEFORE your final Ch. 13 payment - or after? There are 2 courses one must take - 1 in the beginning of your Ch. 13 and the other prior to completion of plan in order to get a discharge. Hopefully you did the course prior to last payment; there have been many instances where people have had their entire Ch. 13 dismissed due to not getting those certificates to the Trustee when required.

Hopefully this is not the case in your instance. Have you checked PACER to see what forms are actually there and what the Trustee wrote?

[railroad436]

So, my attorney's office called me back today and they claim I never completed my final counseling course or completed the child support affidavits. So they asked me for $300 and to complete the courses and they will get it reopened and discharged.

Luckily, I have my course certificates and I also have an e-mail from their office dated 4/10/2012 with the filled out affidavits showing I completed my courses which means they had record of it. It also had the child support affidavits for us to get notarized and sent back. So, I sent the certs and e-mail back to them for review.

[despritfreya]

If you have proof that you supplied to your attny the Financial Management Certificate and the child support affidavit in a timely fashion but that your attny failed to transmit them to the bk court, you should not be paying anything to fix the problem.

And. . . what is the $300.00 suppose to be for - reopening your case if it was "closed without the entry of a discharge"?

Des.

[Mayo]

I used Pacer to track the status of all of my documents, just in case my attorney dropped the ball. I learned on here about the 2nd credit counseling course. If I had waited on my attorney to let me know I needed to take the course it would have not been done on time. What stinks is your 13 is going to be hanging around on your credit report longer now.

[railroad436]

If you have proof that you supplied to your attny the Financial Management Certificate and the child support affidavit in a timely fashion but that your attny failed to transmit them to the bk court, you should not be paying anything to fix the problem.

And. . . what is the $300.00 suppose to be for - reopening your case if it was "closed without the entry of a discharge"?

Des.

The $300 is supposedly the fee to reopen the case and then get it discharged. They called it court fees. When I told her that I had that stuff, she said she will see what they can do. I am going to call everyday until it is resolved.


I dont have any proof that I supplied them with anything other than the certificates. I dont have any proof that I dropped off the stuff after I got it notorized. I just dropped it off at the office and gave it to the secretary. I should have gotten a receipt or something knowing full well how unorganized this office is.

We hired the same attorney to complete an adoption for me adopting my wife's daughter and she didnt cash our check for 2 months and then when we asked about it, she had lost it and never filed or got started on anything. Luckily, she gave us a full refund and we were able to go somewhere else and get it done in 2 months.

[railroad436]

I used Pacer to track the status of all of my documents, just in case my attorney dropped the ball. I learned on here about the 2nd credit counseling course. If I had waited on my attorney to let me know I needed to take the course it would have not been done on time. What stinks is your 13 is going to be hanging around on your credit report longer now.

How do you access Pacer? I thought you had to be a lawyer or someone licensed.

Being on my credit report longer doesnt bother me because after a couple of years of solid credit history, it will have minimal impact. But, having the discharge date be a year later is a problem. I am hoping maybe it can be done retroactively but I doubt that is allowed within the law.

[LadyInTheRed]

What stinks is your 13 is going to be hanging around on your credit report longer now.

Not true. The time it stays on your credit report begins on the date you file, not the date of discharge.