20 year old inheritance and chapter 13

[peg]

Our chapter 13 was confirmed on Oct 28.2015. Everything went well, and are making timely payments. Yesterday we where reminded about a small plot of land the was left to my husband by his uncle, 20 years ago, it is shared by 18 of his cousins, about 6 acres each person, the land is in Texas. In the will it states the land can never be sold. After such a long amount of time we really didn't remember having this land, so we called our attorney today and you will have thought we withheld the info on purpose. What we are wondering seeing that it was 20 yrs ago does it having any bearing on our BK? Any and all replies would be welcome as I am very concerned over this, We live in Illinois.
Thanks
Peg

[LadyInTheRed]

If you had included the asset on your petition, the non-exempt value would set a minimum that must be paid to unsecured creditors during your plan. If your trustee finds out about the land now, he could accuse you of fraud and petition the court to deny you a discharge.

Did your attorney say he would file an amendment to your petition?

[justbroke]

I agree with LITR. This is going to cause extra work for your attorney. Your Confirmation may need to be modified (or amended) if the "best interest of creditors" test reveals that you have not dedicated enough money to the Plan to pay that liquidated value of the property.

No one likes "late discovered" assets in a bankruptcy. Just work with your attorney through whatever process that must be followed. Your attorney grilled you and seemed "miffed" because he really needs to know your reaction and whether you actually did withhold this information until confirmation. People do "hide" assets or otherwise conveniently forget about assets (sometimes thinking that it's irrelevant because, for example, a "will" said it can't be sold). (And no, I'm not miffed and I'm not thinking that you withheld the information.)

[peg]

Thank you so much for the answers. we honestly just forgot and are taking the proper steps to take care of the situation, we didn't mean to cause extra work for anyone. Could this cause our payments to go up? We're barely making it month to month as it is. Does anyone know if this could be covered under the exemptions? I'm very worried they could dismiss the case. then what? Does life really have to be this hard?
Thanks again

[justbroke]

Unless you have leftover exemptions and depending on the value of the property, it is unlikely that you'd have enough exemptions to cover the value. It could make your plan payment increase in order to satisfy that "best interest of creditors" test (also known as the "Chapter 7 liquidation test"). If this makes your plan infeasible (your payments don't meet the minimum plan requirements given the non-exempt value of the property), you and your attorney will need to work something out.

It does not need to be hard. Let your attorney sort through this since that is why you pay them. Bankruptcy is also about assets. Again, late discovered assets are a pain for everyone involved, but it is not the end of the world.