reaffirmation agreement in limbo?

[cleanslate01]

Sorry if this posts twice. Computer must have had a seizure...

Details:
Chapter 7 filed November 2009
Discharged February 2010
Reaffirmed our car December 2009
State of Indiana
Case not yet closed because trustee wanted information on our tax refund, which ticks me off because last May I told her we got a refund and forked it over....another story.

Here's the problem. Our auto loan was zeroed out with Capital One so we couldn't make payments. We never got statements from them. We never got anything from the court that our reaffirmation agreement was accepted and nothing from Capital One either. Spent 3 days getting bounced around until we got transferred to the BK department. Their answer is "well you are behind on loan payments, just pay as much as you can, and when the case is closed, hope for the best". We made 2 payments since then and they can not give us a receipt, our loan balance in writing, nothing. We contact our lawyer and his advice is to not contact them again, bank the current payments along with "back payments" and when we have the full amount, contact them again.

How can we owe back payments on a loan that according to their system doesn't exist? We were waiting for the reaffirmation agreement confirmation, which never came, and for statements to start up again. Our understanding was the reaffirmation agreement constituted a new loan with new terms. Lawyer is guessing we are "not on their radar", which is less than encouraging. My fear is sending in large sums of $ to catch up but having the car repo'ed anyway. Are you supposed to get something in writing on the reaffirmation agreement being accepted by the court and the creditor?

[lotsoquest]

Sorry if this posts twice. Computer must have had a seizure...

Details:
Chapter 7 filed November 2009
Discharged February 2010
Reaffirmed our car December 2009
State of Indiana
Case not yet closed because trustee wanted information on our tax refund, which ticks me off because last May I told her we got a refund and forked it over....another story.

Here's the problem. Our auto loan was zeroed out with Capital One so we couldn't make payments. We never got statements from them. We never got anything from the court that our reaffirmation agreement was accepted and nothing from Capital One either. Spent 3 days getting bounced around until we got transferred to the BK department. Their answer is "well you are behind on loan payments, just pay as much as you can, and when the case is closed, hope for the best". We made 2 payments since then and they can not give us a receipt, our loan balance in writing, nothing. We contact our lawyer and his advice is to not contact them again, bank the current payments along with "back payments" and when we have the full amount, contact them again.

How can we owe back payments on a loan that according to their system doesn't exist? We were waiting for the reaffirmation agreement confirmation, which never came, and for statements to start up again. Our understanding was the reaffirmation agreement constituted a new loan with new terms. Lawyer is guessing we are "not on their radar", which is less than encouraging. My fear is sending in large sums of $ to catch up but having the car repo'ed anyway. Are you supposed to get something in writing on the reaffirmation agreement being accepted by the court and the creditor?

Sounds like you need to know whether or not the loan was "charged off". If it doesn't exist as you put it that sounds very familiar to me. If they used the term "zero'ed out" that is consistent with terminology that typically spells out "write off". Don't take my word for it.

The problem you now may have is that the repossessor just hasn't gotten to your account yet or they are looking and have not found your car, bike, truck etc.. Banks are REALLY pulling some shady stunts these days I think because they know the debtor can't afford or won't spend the money to defend themselves.

If you effectively did not reaffirm even though you "meant" to, think about it.... You now have their collateral AND there is ZERO legal liability for you to pay for it. Usually, if it's current, they will let it ride until the first "smell" of something wrong. Then, they yank it because basically there is no longer a promise to pay on the money they have out on the street.

Best of luck!

PS - The instructions to "pay as much as you can" sounds like a rep who knows you're up for repo but they are trying to collect as much as possible before they take it anyway. But this is all speculation on my part.

[lotsoquest]

One more thing... Technically there is no such thing as reaffirmation in limbo. It's either signed, entered and standing or it got ignored, lost, declined or??????

[cleanslate01]

Thanks for the reply! I checked PACER and the reaffirmation agreement is there with a signature from Capital One. Our lawyer has no idea why statements never resumed. Capital One never said the loan was "zeroed out". By that, I meant that when we looked online, the loan information stated the balance remaining was zero. Today I tried to login again and it looks like the loan never existed. The BK department at Cap One stated they wouldn't move to repo until the case was closed, which it hasn't been. They also stated that when the case closed, someone would contact us with options but not before then.

I am inclined to go between my gut and the lawyer's recommendation. I don't want to ignore them completely. I would like to start paying the normal payment every month so I'm not getting further behind while I pursue them for some sort of statement, receipt for my payments. But I don't want to send in "back payments" until they actually produce some sort of notice or communication informing me that I am behind. I figure at that time I can at least point to some consistent payment history as proof that they are getting their money. In the meantime, I'll bank those extra payments I planned on making (the catch-ups). If they don't want to work with tacking those "missed payments" onto the end of the loan or demand some sort of payment, I can pull that cash out and use it to show that I'm working with them.

My hope is that they would rather have my timely payments every month instead of a repo of my 6 year old car. I'm also pretty ticked that my lawyer advised us to reaffirm. $4K upside down in a car that old and he never informed us that we could keep the car without reaffirming. Grrrrr.