preparing to file 13

[larryg]

Looking for helpful info.
I'm filing 13 so I can keep my house. Do I continue to make payments on my house after filling? Will filing effect how my bank looks at my mortgage? I am not behind on my payments and I thought I could just continue to pay the mortgage but now I understand that the mortgage has to be listed with debts for the trustee. Will the trustee make the payments or will I.
It appears that I will have to payback the difference between my mortgage and PVA on the house less the state allowed deduction. Does that sound right? All my debt other than the mortgage are credit cards.
Also there is the bank account to consider. I get paid once a month and pay my bills through out the month. Somewhere on here I read that the trustee get the balance in your checking account. When dos this take effect. Should I stop depositing my paycheck before filing?
Thanks for any help you offer.

[woeisme]

For a CH 13, if you are current on your house payments, you can continue to make them yourself outside the plan (we are.) If you owe arrears, you have to make the payments to the trustee, who distributes them to the morgage company.

How much you have to pay in the CH 13 plan depends on more than just the difference between your house equity and deduction amount, it depends on what the means test says you can afford to pay, so while it has to be at least as much as what the creditors would get if you filed CH 7 and gave up the house equity (minus exemption) it could be much more than that. (We have no unexempted equity in our house, yet must pay $1100 a month for 60 months to the trustee, for example, based on what the means test determined our disposable income to be.)

They didn't worry about funds in the bank account very much for us as CH 13, I think that's more important for CH 7 filers. Since they already know all our monthly expenses and pay, they just wanted to have a ballpark number of how much $ was in the bank on average after paying the bills, and if there was any $ in a savings account. We never had to stop our direct deposits and only had to list our bank on the forms the lawyer submitted, never had to submit an actual balance from the checking account.

[larryg]

At present I don't have enough income to file 13 but plan to take in a border or take on a part time job before filing. According to the attny I would be making the min payment of 200 to 300 and that would increase as my income increased during the 5 yrs.
I have a good mortgage with low interest rate and no 2nd so I really don't want to lose the house. Attny said with the equity in my house the only way to keep it was to go 13.
It's good to know they don't go after the bank account in a 13. Thanks

[Flamingo]

Looking for helpful info.
I'm filing 13 so I can keep my house. Do I continue to make payments on my house after filling? Will filing effect how my bank looks at my mortgage? I am not behind on my payments and I thought I could just continue to pay the mortgage but now I understand that the mortgage has to be listed with debts for the trustee. Will the trustee make the payments or will I.
It appears that I will have to payback the difference between my mortgage and PVA on the house less the state allowed deduction. Does that sound right? All my debt other than the mortgage are credit cards.
Also there is the bank account to consider. I get paid once a month and pay my bills through out the month. Somewhere on here I read that the trustee get the balance in your checking account. When dos this take effect. Should I stop depositing my paycheck before filing?
Thanks for any help you offer.

As another poster has already stated, if you are not behind (in arrears) with your mortgage payments, you will continue to make those payments outside the Plan. Your Plan payment will be a separate payment. What your mortgagor will do is place your mortgage account with their bankruptcy section and you will find you will more than likely have to send your payment to a different address and will be notified by them as to that information. By all means, continue to send in your payment to the address you have at present until notified otherwise. While your mortgage is not included in your Plan payment, your mortgage is still part of your bankruptcy and will be treated as part of your bankruptcy by your bank and will/may appear as such on your credit reports. I am uncertain as to what you state about you paying the difference between the mortgage and your "PVA" on the house and maybe someone else can help you.

Your attorney may request copies of all your bank statements giong back several months - we had to provide one year of bank statements (checking and savings) and give explanations for every deposit over $1,000 and every check written or cash withdrawal for, if I remember correctly, $500. Those would mostly have been mortgage payments for us and incoming paychecks. You will have to provide paystubs so it doesn't matter about your paychecks being deposited - they will want copies of all that. You can expect to provide at least 6 months to one year worth of information to your attorney and Trustee as to your bank accounts (checking/savings). Once you retain your attorney to file bankruptcy, you will be given a complete list of instructions as to what to provide the attorney to provide to the Trustee. None are cookie-cutter requests as almost everyone on here has encoutnered different requirements and provisions so it all depends on the state in which you live and the Trustee involved with your filing.

Best of luck to you!

[cso5@]

Here's how it is working for my mortgage:
I was behind on my mortgage payments, 1st and 2nd mortgage, by about 3 months, when I filed.

The arrears is being paid through the plan. The current amount due every month is being paid by me, outside the plan.

I am not saying the other posters are wrong -- just, there are different treatments of payments for stuff like mortgages by different trustees / districts. So you should be prepared for either situation -- either paying arrears plus current through the plan, or the arrears in the plan, the current outside.

Hope this helps.

[larryg]

Thanks for the input. I have been reading the BK manual II and I think I'm going to talk to another attny about chapter 7. My income is so low and the only asset is my house if there is a way to excempt it I think a 7 might be the better answer.