I filed CH13 in April. I finally found out how to get an account that shows all the current claims put in. One of my Credit Union claims is for $678,411,927.30!? The largest debt I had with them was around $10,000. That seems like an odd number to just of fat fingered it. How do I go about getting this corrected?
As the title says, this has been a rough start to Chapter 13.
Back in January, my wife and I started working with a bankruptcy lawyer because we believed we were over median income and would need to file Chapter 13. We weren’t ready to file immediately, but we paid the attorney in full so we could move quickly if things got worse.
Then in early April, I had a job change that wasn’t by choice, and it resulted in about a $2,000/month loss in income. We were already living paycheck to paycheck, and at that point we had not paid our mortgage or my wife’s auto loan since January. We also had some unexpected necessary expenses that forced us to choose what bills got paid.
By April we were roughly:
-$8,000 behind on our mortgage
-$4,000 behind on my wife’s vehicle
-Behind on credit cards and basically all other unsecured debt after stopping payments in March
We met with our attorney again, and he told us that due to the income drop we were now under median income and would qualify for Chapter 7 — but not until August because we filed Chapter 7 back in August 2018 and were still in the waiting period.
The problem is we really don’t want to lose our home. We have two kids who have lived here for 10 years, one since birth. The attorney advised us to work with the bank, get the mortgage caught up somehow, and then file Chapter 7 later. So I contacted the bank. To be fair, I hadn’t been responsive to them before because I was overwhelmed. Literally the day after I reached out, they accelerated the mortgage and demanded the full remaining balance (around $85k) or they would foreclose.
At that point we felt Chapter 13 became our only option.
Since then, the experience with our attorney has honestly been a mess. He scheduled a meeting to review and file the petition, then completely missed it. I called repeatedly and only got voicemail. Later he apologized and said he had been out of state without service and would call that evening — but never did. About a week later we finally reviewed everything and filed on April 20th, but by then my wife’s car had already been repossessed the day before filing. Had he been available when originally scheduled, that likely wouldn’t have happened.
Now we’re almost a month past since filing:
-Our first trustee payment is due May 20th
-341 scheduled for May 26th
-We still don’t even know what the payment amount will be as our lawyer still hasn’t told us, like seriously? It’s due in 7 days!
-My wife still doesn’t have her vehicle back even though we elected to pay it through the plan
I ended up contacting the bank myself because I wasn’t getting updates on the vehicle return. The bank responded and CC’d my attorney saying they would release the vehicle once they received a copy of the plan. My attorney replied saying it would be handled “this week,” but still nothing.
I’ve also repeatedly asked to review our asset list because I believe a firearm may have been omitted, and I want everything to be accurate. I haven’t gotten any response on that either.
On top of all this:
-We owe back taxes
-We’re behind on the mortgage
-My wife has ongoing health issues and medical debt
-I start college again in two weeks
-My employer recently announced our plant is closing, so I’ll be transitioning to another internal position
We’ve seriously discussed just surrendering the house and filing Chapter 7 once eligible, but rentals around here are difficult with pets. We have a dog and cat that are part of our family, and most rentals won’t allow them. The stress level in our house is unreal right now. My wife spent most of Mother’s Day crying because she’s so overwhelmed she can barely function. I barely sleep myself. It’s hard not to feel ashamed ending up in this situation a second time, but between medical bills, pay cuts, inflation, and the cost of living, we just couldn’t keep up anymore.
Not really sure what I’m asking here — maybe just venting. We did try pursuing a mortgage modification so we could catch up arrears and eventually file Chapter 7 instead, but the bank refused to work with us. They cited the fact that we didn’t reaffirm the mortgage after our 2018 bankruptcy. It’s an in-house loan, not FHA, so I thought they’d maybe have more flexibility, but apparently not.