Letter from Trustee bef 341 about mortgage appraisal. Comments??

[happy_ira]

Hi all. Received a letter from my Trustee today; my 341 is two weeks away (late-September). In the letter he requested information related to my home. Specifically, he has asked for copies of:

1) Closing statement at the date of purchase. (Easy enough; I have a copy of this in my file cabinet.)

2) Copies of mortgage showing "balance owing on the property including principal, interest and any arrears (i.e., the payoff figure)". I immediately called my mortgage company who told me it will take 7-10 days to generate a payoff letter, but I need to get this to him "several days in advance of the above meeting" so can I just send him a copy of my most recent statement which shows the Unpaid Principal Balance?

3) Written appraisal. I'll have to get this done by an appraisal firm.

Here is my question: My attorney has advised that the Trustee is looking for positive equity value, and if the Market Value provided by the appraisal is above the Mortgage payoff (by greater than $50k since that is the New York Homestead Exemption amount), then there could be an issue. However, since my mortgage is $500k and the current market value of my home is approx $475k (I'm waiting for the appraisers report).

SO - what do you all say to the documents I need to provide? The payoff letter will be slow in coming, will a mortgage statement suffice?

One complicating point: I actually have TWO mortgages on this propert (one mortgage is $400k, the other is $100k). The smaller mortgage of $100k is held by a small financial firm and the monthly coupon does NOT list my current balance. What do I do? It is a pain to get a statement from them and they could potentially hold me up?? Ideas?

Thanks.

[Help!]

My advice based on interaction with a case trustee and attorney for a U.S. Trustee is to keep records to show you've done everything in your power to get the documentation they're looking for. I had a spiral bound notebook in which I noted the date and time I called the company to request the information, the phone number I called, the name of the representative I spoke with and a short summary such as "Ms. Jones stated she was unable to fax the payoff amount to me but could order a copy to be sent by mail. She stated I should receive this in 10 working days".

The assistant to the case trustee confided to me that the case trustee himself was having a hard time getting creditors to provide him with the documentation he requested. In my experience, both the case trustee and attorney for the U.S. Trustee were reasonable and knew that the documents they requested might not be readily available. I gave them a written statement with whatever documentation I had and explained why I didn't have exactly what they were looking for, using the details in the notebook.