Sorry for the long story, but I’m worried to death about something.* My wife and I file back in September (we live in Ga, btw) and we had our 341 meeting on Oct 18th.* Since I have a good job (my wife is a stay at home mom with 3 kids), we are way over the median income ($75/yr for a 5 person family), especially since my 6mth prior income included a sizable bonus, so that increased my “yearly” income to way more than I actually make in a year.* My tax returns for the past several years have been approximately $100k, $103k, and $106k, and I expect this year to be about $110k, but with the bonus calculated into it, and the way they added up the previous 6mths paystubs, my estimated annual income will be $125k according to the Means test calculation!
Our first attempt at Ch 7 was with a lawyer that told us we couldn’t file due to the Means test, but we have very high car payments and extremely high medical bills because of my wife’s health and dental issues (she has a payment plan with our dentist that shows she needs $14k in dental work, alone, not to mention she requires a lot of medical treatment for various things).* We found a 2nd lawyer that said we passed the Means test with the two high car payments and medical bills, we are actually negative on the test by a couple hundred $’s.* Our lawyer did tell us that he expects the Trustee to have issues and for this to drag out for 6 months or more, but as of yesterday, the certificate of no determination of presumed abuse, trustee’s report of no distribution, and order that this case is not subject to dismissal have been filed.* So it’s been about 22 days since our 341 and it looks good so far.
To make a long story longer, my mother passed away and we had to move my father into the house with us, so now we are a family of 6.* We have a 2011 Camry and a 2011 Dodge Ram 1500, of which neither allows all 6 of us to travel in 1 vehicle anymore.* Combined, we owe about $1400 a month on them (really upside down on both of them due to stupid mistakes), and since we need a mini-van or something like that for us all to ride in, we plan on letting at least the Camry to be repossessed.*
Our lawyer told us that we needed to keep both car payments in order to pass the Means test, and we needed to pay on them until discharge.* He did not go to the 341 meeting with us, but the lawyer that he uses for handling the 341 meetings told us we could stop paying right after the 341.* I am really worried that if we stop paying one of them before discharge, then our available cash flow will go above the Means test number and we may not qualify for Ch7 anymore.* My wife wants to stop paying and go ahead and buy a new minivan RIGHT now.* I don’t think this is a good idea, and I can’t get a straight answer out of my attorney.* I know the Means test is a snapshot of the day we filed, but if the Trustee sees that we are no longer paying $630 a month, I’m afraid he will change it to an abuse case.* Or will he ever see it again?* Will the finance company ask for the case to be thrown out?
So, my questions are these:
can we go ahead and stop paying on the car (we are already into the grace period, with Southeast Toyota, the car was due on the 6th)?* When will they repossess? Can they do that during this time frame(22 days after the 341)?
Can we go ahead and finance a new car (we have a ton of offers from dealerships telling us to come and buy now, I’m sure at 20% interest)
Will this affect our case?
We have not received ANY reaffirmation letters from any creditor yet, should I be worried about this, too?
Our first attempt at Ch 7 was with a lawyer that told us we couldn’t file due to the Means test, but we have very high car payments and extremely high medical bills because of my wife’s health and dental issues (she has a payment plan with our dentist that shows she needs $14k in dental work, alone, not to mention she requires a lot of medical treatment for various things).* We found a 2nd lawyer that said we passed the Means test with the two high car payments and medical bills, we are actually negative on the test by a couple hundred $’s.* Our lawyer did tell us that he expects the Trustee to have issues and for this to drag out for 6 months or more, but as of yesterday, the certificate of no determination of presumed abuse, trustee’s report of no distribution, and order that this case is not subject to dismissal have been filed.* So it’s been about 22 days since our 341 and it looks good so far.
To make a long story longer, my mother passed away and we had to move my father into the house with us, so now we are a family of 6.* We have a 2011 Camry and a 2011 Dodge Ram 1500, of which neither allows all 6 of us to travel in 1 vehicle anymore.* Combined, we owe about $1400 a month on them (really upside down on both of them due to stupid mistakes), and since we need a mini-van or something like that for us all to ride in, we plan on letting at least the Camry to be repossessed.*
Our lawyer told us that we needed to keep both car payments in order to pass the Means test, and we needed to pay on them until discharge.* He did not go to the 341 meeting with us, but the lawyer that he uses for handling the 341 meetings told us we could stop paying right after the 341.* I am really worried that if we stop paying one of them before discharge, then our available cash flow will go above the Means test number and we may not qualify for Ch7 anymore.* My wife wants to stop paying and go ahead and buy a new minivan RIGHT now.* I don’t think this is a good idea, and I can’t get a straight answer out of my attorney.* I know the Means test is a snapshot of the day we filed, but if the Trustee sees that we are no longer paying $630 a month, I’m afraid he will change it to an abuse case.* Or will he ever see it again?* Will the finance company ask for the case to be thrown out?
So, my questions are these:
can we go ahead and stop paying on the car (we are already into the grace period, with Southeast Toyota, the car was due on the 6th)?* When will they repossess? Can they do that during this time frame(22 days after the 341)?
Can we go ahead and finance a new car (we have a ton of offers from dealerships telling us to come and buy now, I’m sure at 20% interest)
Will this affect our case?
We have not received ANY reaffirmation letters from any creditor yet, should I be worried about this, too?
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