How long before discharge now?

[millerc507]

Ok, so long story short. Our case was originally a Ch. 7 filed 9/21/07, because Trustee found assets(equity in our house) we filed to convert to Ch. 13. Before Judge granted our conversion the Ch. 7 Trustee made a settlement offer. We accepted the offer but our original BK Attorney decided they were not going to represent us anymore(whole other story) and did not forward our acceptance to the Trustee, so the case converted to Ch. 13. Well since we were not represented by an attorney anymore, we contacted the Trustee ourselves to see if the offer still stood. It did, so we hired another attorney to re-convert back to a Chapter 7 so we could finalize the offer. Paperwork was filed for the re-conversion and 20 days was given to creditors to object. No objections. The re-conversion was granted on 3/12/08 with no 341 meeting. Our original discharge date was 12/21/07. Now to my question. Should our discharge be pretty quick now or will we have to wait another 90 days for creditor objections. Thanks in advance for your replies.

[coma]

I reconvrted on 10/15/07, and did have another 341 in December, with my discharge being on 2/15/08. That was my experience. I would think that if you are converting to another chapter, you' have another 341, but maybe there's an exception. You had a period for objections to the conversion to a chapter 7, but there also needs to be a period of objection for creditors once you are officially converted. Check with your attorney. We did our conversion pro se, and it was easy.

[leftyf]

What the heck is a settlement offer for a chapter 7? Are the chapter 13 and chapter 7 trustees competing for your business or something? Please excuse my ignorance.

[coma]

What the heck is a settlement offer for a chapter 7? Are the chapter 13 and chapter 7 trustees competing for your business or something? Please excuse my ignorance.

My guess (which mean nothing ) is probably there was an asset the OP was interested in saving, and the trustee offered to let them keep itfor a certain amount of money or something like that.

[HHM]

Honestly, I don't know the answer. Please let us know what actually happens.

Was a 341 meeting at least scheduled on the "re-conversion" to the chap. 7 regardless if you had to attend.

[millerc507]

Yes, a 341 was scheduled but in the judge's ruling allowing us to convert back to a 7, he stated that we do not have to attend another 341. The settlement was over the equity in the home. My father loaned us 56K for a down payment, but the deed was not recorded within 30 days of signing so the 7 trustee made a motion to avoid the lien and take the house. What it all boils down to is terrible advice from our first attorney, who suggested we file at the time we filed rather than wait 6 months when the deed to my father would not have been an issue. He assured us on multiple occasions that the lien to my dad was not going to be an issue. We basically had to settle because the 7 trustee also filed an adversarial proceeding against my dad for the 56K and objected to our discharge.
The trustee settled for 15K--so, again we had to take another loan from my dad. We might could have fought it but there was not telling what it would cost us in legal fees. We are filing a malpractice suit against our first attorney for bad advice given to us pertaining to the validity of the lien on the house. Hopefully, we can get my dad his 15K back. Again, had our first attorney advised we wait 6 more months to file, apparently none of this would have been an issue.

[HHM]

Ok, that is what I suspected. Since a 341 was scheduled, then your discharge should occur 60 days from the date of that scheduled 341 meeting. A conversion is like opening a new case, so you still have to follow procedure and timelines.

[millerc507]

ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has been such a nightmare. We just can't wait for it to be over.