should I hold back payments on my home and car?

[clifrockh]

Hello forum peeps. My wife and I are trying to come up with the attorneys fees to file. We have paid the retainer fee of $400 required to start completing the "packet". Here's the problem: we are having trouble coming up with the money because we intend to reaffirm on a car ($309 per month) and the house ($882). we have not missed any payments on these and therefore cannot seem to come up with the money. Now Christmas is coming and I If we use our next payments to pay the lawyer, will we lose our chance to reaffirm? We live in Tennessee, filing chapter 7 (hopefully), and are voluntarily surrendering another vehicle this week. Of course, I have a job interview for a more stable income (we're both paid by commission, which didn't help) right after the scheduled pickup day (go figure).

I know you probably have answered this before I just haven't found where yet.

thanks,

clifrock

[SinkingFast]

Ch 7 is known as "Liquidation BK".

Any major Assets you're making payments on,.......... House, Car,........ That you want to keep,........... You need to be current on those loans on filing day.

If you were filing Ch 13, you could put the arrears in the Plan. But in Ch 7,........... If you're in arrears,............ The Lenders will simply file a Motion to Lift Stay and proceed with Foreclosure or Repossession.

[lrprn]

Welcome to BK Forum - glad you found us!

we have not missed any payments on these and therefore cannot seem to come up with the money.

Are you still paying your unsecured debts (credit cards, etc) and/or the car payment for the car that you intend to surrender?

If you aren't and are still having trouble coming up with the money to pay your lawyer, then you need to take a hard look at your post-filing financial situation. Chances are you need to either make more income (good that you have your job interview - good luck with that!) or decrease your expenses by surrendering an asset or cutting living expenses more if you don't get the new job.

If we use our next payments to pay the lawyer, will we lose our chance to reaffirm?

As SinkingFast said, to keep your house and car in Ch 7, you must be current on payments for both when you file or your mortgage lender will file to lift your automatic stay and foreclose.

[clifrockh]

Thanks for replying and helping.
we have stopped paying on the unsecured debts and the surrendered car. We have both seen significant drops in income (seasonally and otherwise) that will not be returned to normal until springtime at best. I really think we waited too long but we didn't want to give up too soon. The car that we want to keep is a low-payment lease with only 18 months left. We wanted to keep it so that we could continue to build car credit for nearly 2 years at basically 2% interest vs. buying a cheap car for cash.
We will have to go bare bones for Christmas and should catch up within 4-6 wks. I wasn't sure if there was any incentive to file before the end of the year, versus after.

Have a great weekend!