Changing from 7 to 13

[nomorecredit]

We saw our lawyer this morning all ready to file Chapt. 7 knowing that it could change due to a land deed that holds my husbands name along with his brothers jointly. The lawyer feels that we need to get an appraisel on this land then pay a % of what it's worth or something like that and convert to Chapt. 13. He said something about a payment of $335 approx. a month that we could do for 5 years. My concern is...how do we find this money when we had very little to no disposable income in a Chapt. 7? Did I miss something? We can't sell this land to his brother, he's broke too!! If we were to sell the land outright(not sure if we can do that...his mother pays taxes and farms it)what if no one wanted to buy it? Also, if we could sell it outright we wouldn't be filing anyway!

Help please!

[edwards2]

Obviously your attorney thinks there would be problems with your husband "owning" part of the land. Hopefully our moderator can help you with the whys and what to do now. We certainly can understand why you would not want to do a Chapter 13..hopefully, you won't have to.

[nomorecredit]

Thank you edwards2,

This is such a difficult time and we went from a pretty simple Chapt. 7 to this complicated mess! The sadest thing of all is we KNOW his mom never entended for us to own that land outright until after her death. So her lawyers screwed up! We receive nothing from owing this land other than have our name on the property. She still pays taxes and makes the decisions regarding what happens to the land.

Is it possible to have her name put back on the deed showing that the Trust owns it or will this constitute fraud? Or what about taking my husbands name off altogether? His brother would give him his share one day, that's not a problem. It's just not really ours right now to do what we wish! Are we stuck between a rock and a hard place??

What happens if we have the land appraised and it's worth alot more than what we owe? Will we have to pay back at 100%? How does that help us if we have no disposable income? Oh, this is so confusing. How does a Chapt. 13 fit in things like, senior pictures, school fees, cap and gown, college, braces?

We have a Flex spending account and we are under the new HSA(Health Savings Account) will these be allowed? Of couse I don't know if they can even be changed at this point with my husbands employer.

Sorry this are so many of the ??? that came up after we left our lawyers office yesterday..more confused than when we arrived!

Thanks again for any help!

[nomorecredit]

Ok update..because obviously people are reading..I guess no one has an answer though...

Anyway, short of a miracle, it appears as though the land is worth way more than what we owe and would be required to payback at 100% in a Chapt.13.
The funny thing is the land is listed as being in a Life estate on the tax bill but it appears that the deed reads differently! Sounds like someone really screwed up!

What are the risks of trying to pay this debt off ourselves little by little, one at a time, without making minimums on any, only the ones we are wanting to get paid off first..snowball effect? Could we lose our home, our car, if these are current?

[nomorecredit]

Well, that miracle I was speaking of may be in the making...it appears per my mother in laws lawyer(Indiana) that we DO NOT own the land until her death, that our lawyer(Ohio)is interpreting the deed wrong. That in Indiana that is how a deed is recorded?? for a Trust?? I sure hope he is right and our lawyer recognizes it as such, then we could go back to filing a simple Chapt. 7, with expempt assets(home and car)!! If not she's agreed to let us borrow the money and not file at all!! So I guess there really is a miracle in all this after all!

I'm ready to get off this rollercoaster!!