Notice of Objection

[beachgirl]

I received a Notice of Objection to Confirmation today. Could someone please fill me in on what happens now. We attended our 341 meeting 2 weeks ago, and everything seemed to be in order. Our attorney told us there should be no problems, just waiting on the confirmation hearing. Today, we received this. It says that the debtors plan doesn't meet the best interests of creditors test and the plan doesn't meet the disposable income requirement. Does this mean they want more money?? We are already scheduled to pay $1400 for 36 months. This is almost my whole check a month, and we're basically living on what my hubby brings home. What's next? I am sick to my stomach now. Guess everything was too good to be true, going along to smooth. Anybody else experienced this?

[JeepMom]

I can't help you but surely someone here can.

Good luck!

[$$only4ever]

We filed Chapter 13 in 02/2005 and was confirmed in 09/2005. The trustee objected to our plan too for the same reason as you. This is where the negotiations begin between your attorney and the trustee. It is all about compromise, compromise, compromise. Talk to your attorney. After all of the dust settled, the trustee was really fair to us. Good Luck.

[beachgirl]

Did your payments go up alot? I am so worried they are going to want so much more and make it that much harder on us. How long did it take you to get everything worked out? I really do appreciate anything you can tell me. We've got a call into our attorney, but he's out of the office. I'm stressing so much over this!!! Why wasn't something said at the 341 meeting?

[lrprn]

I received a Notice of Objection to Confirmation today. Could someone please fill me in on what happens now. We attended our 341 meeting 2 weeks ago, and everything seemed to be in order. Our attorney told us there should be no problems, just waiting on the confirmation hearing. Today, we received this. It says that the debtors plan doesn't meet the best interests of creditors test and the plan doesn't meet the disposable income requirement. Does this mean they want more money?? We are already scheduled to pay $1400 for 36 months. This is almost my whole check a month, and we're basically living on what my hubby brings home. What's next? I am sick to my stomach now. Guess everything was too good to be true, going along to smooth. Anybody else experienced this?

Welcome to the forum's Ch 13 objection-to-confirmation group...the group that no one wants to join. We became members last month too.

I assume you received a notice in the mail today telling you about the objections. Did the letter state whether is was one of your creditors or your trustee who is objecting?

"The debtors plan doesn't meet the best interest of the creditor's test" - the best interest of creditors test states that your plan must give unsecured creditors at least as much on their claim as they would have gotten if you filed Chapter 7. With a $1400/month payment, it's very hard to believe that your creditors wouldn't get as much back as they would have in Ch 7 . Do you know what your payback % is?

"The plan doesn't meet the disposable income requirement". Hmmm...sounds like someone might be thinking that something you have in your plan as an exemption may not be acceptable. Check out http://www.doney.net/cases/index.htm - scroll down the page and look for the Ch 13 court cases related to disposable income. Do any of these ring a bell in your case?

Our story - we had three objections filed to our Ch 13 plan. One was from our mortgage company saying we were a month in arrears when we filed (we weren't) and two were from our trustee. One was about retirement (thinks we are contributing too much) and the other was related to health benefits (thinks we are double-dipping on our forms). We had our confirmation hearing - no surprise, didn't get confirmed. The good news - last week we were notified that our mortgage company dropped their objection - woohoo! However, despite efforts by our lawyer to work with our trustee, the trustee is not willing to compromise. We are headed to court to have the judge rule on both remaining objections on Oct 5. Until then we are hanging out in limbo making our monthly payments on time and praying daily for a final outcome we can survive for five years.

Keep us posted on what happens with your objections, beachgirl. Hope your lawyer is successful negotiating them away before your confirmation hearing (which, by the way, is NOT where the negotiation happens). Hang in there - PM me if you want and we can worry together

[beachgirl]

My hubby did finally talk to our attorney. He is saying that there is a little problem with our house concerning the tax assessment and what it is actually worth. Our assessment was way higher than an appraisal we recently had done. I hope that's all there is.

The letter stated that the trustee had objected due to those reasons. Should something had been said at the 341 meeting? Is this usual or odd?

The attorney told us not to worry, to fax the appraisal to him and that should take care of the problem. I hope he's right.

[lrprn]

My hubby did finally talk to our attorney. He is saying that there is a little problem with our house concerning the tax assessment and what it is actually worth. Our assessment was way higher than an appraisal we recently had done. I hope that's all there is.

The letter stated that the trustee had objected due to those reasons. Should something had been said at the 341 meeting? Is this usual or odd?

The attorney told us not to worry, to fax the appraisal to him and that should take care of the problem. I hope he's right.

It isn't necessary for something to be said at the 341, although sometimes you may get clarification questions then (we did). Since our trustee didn't like our answers, then he filed the objections.

Sounds like your lawyer has things under control. One thing you might ask him about is if you should get a well-respected local realtor who is very familiar with your neighborhood to give a written estimate of how much your house should be listed for if you put it on the market. That provides a more realistic assessment of its true value than the typically inflated tax assessment appraisal. Your lawyer can advise you about what's best in your case.

Try not to stress too much about this. There's a good chance everything could be negotiated and resolved before your confirmation hearing happens. Hang in there!

[edwards2]

beachgirl...you would be surprised how many of us went through something similar...we filed a Chapter 7 and like your 341 everything seemed to be okay; our attorney said if the BK trustee had an objection she would probably have raised an objection then so we thought we were home free. Being the poster child for worrying I was not convinced and unfortunately, my fears became a reality. We got the infamous letter in the mail too from the US Trustee objecting to our case being discharged. To be fair though, we had to submit a lot of paperwork/receipts/documentation prior to our 341 and we were unable to send everything....we simply did not have all the receipts so the trustee wanted MORE documentation. It took me 2 days to assemble it all. To add insult to injury we received our letter on a Saturday and the following Monday was a holiday so I was not able to find out anything until the following Tuesday. We then had to meet with the Trustee in a 2004 Exam which is a meeting designed to trip us up about our expenses - or so we were told. It was the exact opposite - the trustee was businesslike but very compassionate. We were truly blessed because we had heard horror stories about the US Trustees. She told us we had been through enough and wished us good luck...could not have prayed for a better outcome. So dont stress too much about your situation - sounds like your attorney is on top of things. Please let us know it goes...

[aa06a47]

I received a Notice of Objection to Confirmation today. Could someone please fill me in on what happens now. We attended our 341 meeting 2 weeks ago, and everything seemed to be in order. Our attorney told us there should be no problems, just waiting on the confirmation hearing. Today, we received this. It says that the debtors plan doesn't meet the best interests of creditors test and the plan doesn't meet the disposable income requirement. Does this mean they want more money?? We are already scheduled to pay $1400 for 36 months. This is almost my whole check a month, and we're basically living on what my hubby brings home. What's next? I am sick to my stomach now. Guess everything was too good to be true, going along to smooth. Anybody else experienced this?

My best guess is that this type of objection is related to the creditors are getting less than they would in a straight 13. They will either want more money per month / hence the disposible income thing. Keep your head up and see what the attorney tells you.

[Jman30]

After reading this post, I forget how lucky I was. My Chapter 13 was pretty smooth sailing...there were no objections at all. The only "glitch" was the mortgage company filing a claim to be included in the Chapter 13 as I was trying to keep them out. It slowed down the confirmation by a month or two, but outside of that, we had NO problems getting confirmed.

Does anything think that is because I filed under the OLD LAWS? Does the NEW LAW provide for more ways for creditors/Trustees to object?

[$$only4ever]

We had to convert from a chapter 7 to a chapter 13. So our attorney submitted the same expenses that we had for the chapter 7 for our chapter 13 plan, which was $100.00 a month. His reasoning was that he wanted to "feel" the trustee out. Actually what it did was make the trustee angry. The trustee objected to our plan, no surprise, but wouldn't make any kind of decision for weeks. I figured that we were going to get hung, but 3 days before the confirmation meeting, the trustee said that he wanted $500 per month, and we could still contribute to our 401k's and he did not want our tax returns. He really could have gotten us for $1,000. So take a deep breath, Beachgirl, things will work out. Sometimes I really feel that the trustee likes to play the cat and mouse game. Good Luck.

[lrprn]

After reading this post, I forget how lucky I was. My Chapter 13 was pretty smooth sailing...there were no objections at all. The only "glitch" was the mortgage company filing a claim to be included in the Chapter 13 as I was trying to keep them out. It slowed down the confirmation by a month or two, but outside of that, we had NO problems getting confirmed.

Does anything think that is because I filed under the OLD LAWS? Does the NEW LAW provide for more ways for creditors/Trustees to object?

It's not that the new law has so many more ways for creditors and trustees to object, JMan - it's just that the new law is so poorly written, there's lots of wiggle room for interpretation. Until case law settles some of the grayest areas over the next few years, creditors are more than willing to push the edges to see what will be tolerated until they are forced to stop through court decisions. And as far as trustees go, our lawyer told us that many of the bk trustees want the gray areas to be resolved, so some are choosing to file more objections in cases that involve some of those gray areas in order to get the bk judges to rule on them and set precedent.

The bk system in this country is in a lot of flux at the moment, while lots of us who are getting the objections ride the waves hoping we'll get flung to shore and be confirmed eventually. I'll be kissing the shore when that happens for us, believe me!