HELP!!..converted from 13 to 7 and they came and repo my car today

[TrishyAnn]

I'm so upset at this moment and don't understand..see,me and my hubby filed 13 in 2003 and we let our house go but kept the car and truck and june of 2006 we had to convert cause hubby got sick and he quit his job and had to take a less paying one so we couldn't afford 500 dollars in payment for 13 so we converted,...and i ask my lawyer two times about when we convert they are not going to come and get my car and she said no that i had paid them all the car was worth even tho i still owed about 10,000 more on it she said they can only get the value of it and i had payed that..now why would convert if i knew that i might have to start paying mt car payment back for it was 550.00 mo, so when i woke up this morning they had came and repo it and they are saying that i still got to pay the rest of what i owed on the car and that they sent me a letter telling me about the payments that i owed in Nov..but i never got them we had moved in with my mom because we couldn't afford to pay rent..and they claim they never got anything from the courts saying that we had moved,but that is wrong!..if they didn't know my addy then how did they find my car,so plz someone help me to understand this i'm so upset all i have done is cry..my lawyer said they can't do that is going to call them in the morning but i need a peace of mind so i can sleep and stop worrying about this.So any help on this would really help me out..thank you

[HHM]

I moved your thread as we do not want questions posted in the Bankruptcy FAQ section.

Anyway, on to your issue...at first blush this sounds like a little mis-communication between your lawyer and you? However, I need you to clarify some facts first.

While you were in the Chapter 13, who made the regular monthly car payment, you or the trustee (it was probably you, since it is not a common practice to have the trustee make the payment). Have you missed any payments on the car, either while in a chapter 13, or upon conversion, or afterward (if so, when and how many)?

Do you have a PACER account, if not, you should probably get one. It will allow you to log in and see what has been filed in your case. http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/

[bige1030]

[TrishyAnn]

See i got the car for 24,000.00 in 2000 and filed 13 in 2003 and they paided my car payment while i was in 13 and i payed in almost 11,000.00 which is all the car is worth and that is all my lawyer told me that i had to pay that is why i ask her before converting from 13 to 7 it would not benefit me at all if i knew i was still going to have a 550.00 car payment and on my papers it saids bal due 0 so i'm lost and i wish i could get PACER but can't afford it right now..thanks for your help guys i'll let you know what happens when i find out something,

[HHM]

I am still not understanding why you filed Chapter 13 in the first place, then.

You let your house go...so you didn't need the chapter 13 for that. How much credit card debt did you have at the time you filed your Chapter 13? I think I can see the beginnings of the problem here, you probably did a cram down on your car in your chapter 13, meaning you reduced the principal balance owed on your car to its then current market value (back when you filed Chapter 13) and then made payments accordingly to the trustee and the trustee distributed the funds. However, since you have converted, the cram down is nullified and the entire balance (original principal and all interest) that was owed (when you filed chapter 13) became due. The other issue is that payments to creditors are not strictly made sequentially, except for your attorney's fees, which are made with your first payments, your creditors are paid a percentage of each payment based on their priority and percent owed. So, once your attorney is paid, the subsequent payments would have been divided among your creditors and the trustee (for the trustee fee), granted, most of it would have gone to your car payment.

How can you not afford, it only costs something like 8 cents for each page view. Given the problems you are having, you MUST get a PACER account so you can stay on top of your case. My guess is, had you had a PACER account, this issue would not have come out of left field.

[TrishyAnn]

Frist of all we were only in our home for 6 yrs well i got hurt on my job and couldn't work and my hubby's job shut down so he had to find something making..way less money and at that time we was paying over 1400 a mo,so to lower our 13 payments we had to let our home go..and yes,we had alot of credit cards and loans..so we moved in a rental house then within one yr we had to move to somewhere cheaper and then my hubby had a nervous breakdown and was in hospital for 18 days then when he got out he had to take even a lesser paying job so we had to convert,do you understand now? and we have already payed what 13 said we had to pay on our cars..but see GMAC told me that they got a letter where our 13 was discharged..but they have not got anything about we converted..but thanks anyway

[HHM]

I am not questioning why you had to file BK in the first place, everyone has their reasons. I am still a little concerned why you were placed in a Chapter 13 in the first place, but I suppose what's done is done.

I think my explanation about the car issue still stands. Since you never received a discharge of your Chapter 13, any cram down on your car is nullified, meaning, you now owe all "accumulated" interest and any remaining principal, notwithstanding the fact that the Chapter 13 shows that the car was paid (In old law chapter 13's, most cars are reduced to current market value for the payment plan and all interest stops accruing, but if you fail to get a discharge of your chapter 13, you now owe all that interest). . The only thing I don't know is whether the Repo was valid, unless they did a Motion to Lift the Automatic Stay, I don't think the new law provides for a 30 day automatic expiration of the Automatic stay for conversions (it does so for dismissed and refiled cases).

The sad fact is, even if the Repo was improper, you may not get to keep the car anyway because you owe the accumulated principal and interest from when you filed Chapter 13, so as the legal folks would say, the repo was harmless error.

I hope I am wrong and that your attorney can work it out, but you asked how this could happened and I gave you a plausible explanation.

[TrishyAnn]

Well i'm happy to say i got my car back at 3pm today and i owe nothing,we filed back in 2003 and the converted after the new law again in but with us already been in 13 we fell under the old law so i didn't have to pay buy what the value was,but thank you so much and i plan on never getting myself into this 13 or 7 again no matter what the reason may be..oh,and the reason we file 13 was we owed to much and 7 is mainly for credit cards and we sure had alot of them,15 of them...and several loan companys and at that time we wanted to keep everything..so 7 would not have worked for us but thanks again for all your help and i'll tell my freinds and family about this site if they ever have problems..have a Happy New Year.

[HHM]

Well i'm happy to say i got my car back at 3pm today and i owe nothing,we filed back in 2003 and the converted after the new law again in but with us already been in 13 we fell under the old law so i didn't have to pay buy what the value was,but thank you so much and i plan on never getting myself into this 13 or 7 again no matter what the reason may be..oh,and the reason we file 13 was we owed to much and 7 is mainly for credit cards and we sure had alot of them,15 of them...and several loan companys and at that time we wanted to keep everything..so 7 would not have worked for us but thanks again for all your help and i'll tell my freinds and family about this site if they ever have problems..have a Happy New Year.

That is good to hear.