Reaffirmation hearing-IL

[IZZYnGEORGE]

Received notification of a reaffirmation hearing for our car. My attorney signed off on it, why would the judge request a hearing. This is so stressful...Hope someone can help relieve my worries

[BobMango]

Hard to say without more information. Was your monthly disposable income positive or negative after filling out your schedules I and J?

If your attorney signed off you should not need a reaffirmation hearing with the judge unless there is something strange going on with it. Perhaps it's a mistake on the courts part. Have you checked PACER?

[IZZYnGEORGE]

Yes we were negative, but we decided to surrende rour home and our attorney has written that on the agreement. Just checked PACER...Says ReafHdShp. Does mean hardship

[BobMango]

Yes, that means that the reaffirmation would be a hardship and the judge will have to sign off on it. Based on your explanation my guess is that the hearing will be a formality, but every case is different so YMMV.

[IZZYnGEORGE]

If the judge does not approve it can i do a RIDE THRU...I'm so confused and I'm driving my husband nuts

[BobMango]

Well, once again more information would help. It depends on the lender and the district that you are in. In most cases a ride-thru is possible (and preferable) but Texas, for instance, doesn't allow ride-thrus. In any district, if you are behind on payments then you're subject to repo once your discharge is granted.

If you are up to date on payments but upside down in terms of equity I would not reaffirm. I reaffirmed to get my payment lowered but I also had lots of equity in the vehicle as well so it made sense.

[IZZYnGEORGE]

Northern district Illinois...our lender is WF Auto Finance...I think we are upside down, but the lender says we have equity...we are current with the payments. the reaffirmation is lowering our payment by about $50 a month...and lowering our interest rate by: 10% the loan will be paid off 6 months sooner with an end date of May 2011. The thing is, once we leave our house our rent will be cheaper, but we don't know the exact $ since we are still in our home. I don't know what's more stressful, going through this or having a crap load of debt/ Thanks for your help I really appreciate it!!!

[BobMango]

I think you are ok on both the lender and the district so you should be fine whether the judge signs off or not. Again, I think explaining what you're doing will go a long way with the judge.

Nice job to get the interest and payment reduction! And since it will be paid off in a little over a year I think you're probably not facing much risk of a deficiency if you have to let it go after reaffirmation. My CU dropped the payment from $635 to $400, but our interest rate was right at 5% so we didn't expect a reduction. It did add 5 months to the loan, but we expect to pay if off early and it gives us breathing room in the mean time.

My discharge is still about two weeks away, but I have to say that the stress level has gone way down. A lot of the uncertainty will start to go away now and you can start looking forward to better days!

[munchkn813]

Hate to be off-topic here, but we are going to reaffirm our home and car. How do you go about getting a lower payment and interest on the car payment?? I would looveee that!

[BobMango]

Hate to be off-topic here, but we are going to reaffirm our home and car. How do you go about getting a lower payment and interest on the car payment?? I would looveee that!

Don't know what to tell you about getting the interest rate dropped, but as for the lower payment, I called my credit union right after I filed and asked for the bankruptcy department. I explained our situation and they asked what payment I could live with. I gave them a number and they said ok, as long as I signed a reaffirmation agreement.

They were very easy to work with, your lender may have a different approach to their customers that file.

[IZZYnGEORGE]

We didn't do anything...our bank sent our refarrimation agreement to our attorney who than sent it to us...I don't know how why they decided to lower everything...wish i could be of more help!!! good luck

[munchkn813]

interesting, thank you!

[zingabot]

I'm also in the northern district of Illinois [waving at you]. I'm a little concerned too about whether the judge will approve us reaffirming our car (haven't filed yet)(filing pro se so a judge will have to approve).

According to the Nolo book, just because a judge denies the reaffirmation doesn't mean the lender *has* to come get your car. Most lenders are happy to have you just keep paying so they're spared the hassle of picking up the car and auctioning it off - they just want their money back, and you paying them is the easiest way of getting it. There's nothing that says you can't pay back a loan you choose to after discharge.

AND they also mention that in many states (and as far as Google tells me, Illinois is one of them) it's illegal for the lender to repossess if you're current on payments. Are you?

So I guess what I'm trying to tell you is if even if the judge denies the reaffirmation, that's not a guarantee you'll lose the car.

[IZZYnGEORGE]

Yes we are current on on our payments...Good luck with pro se!!!

Hope everything works our for you!!!! Thanks for your input