Situation developed with my car

[LSUTiger32]

Posting in a seperate thread........

OK, got a situation I guess.

When we were at the 341 my lawyer mentioned this might happen and we got a letter Saturday.

We want to keep one of our cars and we are surrendering the other one. The one we want to keep is with Ford Motor Credit and they had sent a re-affirmation agreement to my attorney for us to sign which we did. However, my attorney said something about since we were a presumed hardship that she would not sign it because if she did she would actually become liable. (Serious?) Anyway, it seems as though a local lawyer on behalf of Ford is setting up a hearing for us on 10/28/09 where my lawyer had told me they would do.

This has to do with the fact that we were like $2,300 a month upside down on our budget schedule but that was of course before all the stuff we gave up was gone. We can afford the car, do I have to go to this hearing with a budget or something to show we can?

Ford is offering the same deal and interest rate but they included something showing we owe $5,000 more than the car is worth. Do we have a possibility here to get the judge to cut down the debt since the car is worth more than we owe? The car is actually worth more, the dumb lawyer did a base model 4 cylinder and we have a loaded out 6. Still if there is a way we can save some money here, that's fine with me.

We aren't going to not be able to keep this car, huh?

[backtoschool]

Posting in a seperate thread........

OK, got a situation I guess.

When we were at the 341 my lawyer mentioned this might happen and we got a letter Saturday.

We want to keep one of our cars and we are surrendering the other one. The one we want to keep is with Ford Motor Credit and they had sent a re-affirmation agreement to my attorney for us to sign which we did. However, my attorney said something about since we were a presumed hardship that she would not sign it because if she did she would actually become liable. (Serious?) Anyway, it seems as though a local lawyer on behalf of Ford is setting up a hearing for us on 10/28/09 where my lawyer had told me they would do.

This has to do with the fact that we were like $2,300 a month upside down on our budget schedule but that was of course before all the stuff we gave up was gone. We can afford the car, do I have to go to this hearing with a budget or something to show we can?

Ford is offering the same deal and interest rate but they included something showing we owe $5,000 more than the car is worth. Do we have a possibility here to get the judge to cut down the debt since the car is worth more than we owe? The car is actually worth more, the dumb lawyer did a base model 4 cylinder and we have a loaded out 6. Still if there is a way we can save some money here, that's fine with me.

We aren't going to not be able to keep this car, huh?

You would have to get the car refinanced through Redemption 722 or something and have them try to get the car's value lowered to what it is actually worth now. But then you would have 22-24% interest, so the whole thing probably would not be worth it.

In a chapter 7 you can't "cram down" the value of the car to what it is worth. You can sometimes do this in a chapter 13 if you have owned the car for more than 910 days.

[LimpDisc]

I spent a lot of time researching Redemption 722 because we had hoped to try it with our Mazda that's $5000 upside down. It looks as if it's pretty hard to get the value low enough to make it worth the time. Our lawyer said they would want to use KBB retail value.

Were choosing reaffirm knowing that our lawyer or the judge will not sign off on reaffirmation. We will continue to make payments and drive the car for 6 months after discharge. At that point we will quit making the payments and look to buy a newer car or clunker.

[LSUTiger32]

OK, not a big deal I was just wondering. So how do I handle this hearing I have to go to? Should I just go prepared to show the judge how we can afford it because we are no longer making payments on the things that will be discharged in the BK?

[mamaluv]

Yes you are going to have to convince the judge that you can afford the payments on the car. What is your DMI with your expenses you plan on keeping?

[LSUTiger32]

Yes you are going to have to convince the judge that you can afford the payments on the car. What is your DMI with your expenses you plan on keeping?

DMI? Help!

Basically now we still have our approx. $4,600 a month net income and the only things we have:

Mortgage: $1,400
Car: $400
Timeshare: $200
Auto insurance: $125
Utilities: $500
Cell phones: $100

Total: $2,725

That leaves almost $2,000 for everything else like groceries, gas, etc.

Do I just do a spreadsheet or something and bring that to the hearing to show the judge that we can easily afford the things we kept?

[LSUTiger32]

Just for further information here is my Schedule J information:

Net income: $4,523.02
Monthly expenses: $7,448.60
Monthly net income: -$2,925.58

Of course it has everything from before I filed.

They have $1,890 under other installments payments.....all of which is gone except the $389 car we are keeping.

Under auto they had $635 which is the monthly payment on the car we are surrendering.

In addition, we were able to get our mortgage payment lowered from $1,750 to $1,400.

That's over $2,400 of the $2,900 negative income covered.

Is it better do just do my own budget and bring that, or should I do a new Schedule J with the new numbers on it and bring that to show him?

[LSUTiger32]

Bumping for any thoughts or ideas.....I got the re-affirmation for my house today so I guess that is another hearing I will be having to attend.

[DavidSolomon]

Auto Reaffirmation

I decided to surrender my vehicle in my Chapter 7. I had a Land Rover through Land Rover Capital (Ford Motor Credit). I was sent two reaffirmation agreements. I did not respond to either. Even though I got a great deal on the vehicle reaffirming didn't make sense. I didn't make any payments during bankruptcy. Once I got my discharge paperwork I called land rover capital and told them I would be dropping the vehicle off at a dealership. They didn't even know how to handle it. I drove it for 5 months without making my monthly payments of $448. I still met the means test without it (high expenses). I would try and just turn in the vehicle. I would just save the payment money and buy a $5000 used car cash or buy here pay here. I paid cash for a 2004 V8 grand cherokee which I drive now.