chapter 13

[jack]

my bankruptcy was discharged in march,it was a chapter 7, can i open it back up and go to a chapter 13?

[SinkingFast]

Well, you probably could. In fact, it is legally possible. But you'd be asking for a pack of trouble.

The Trustee would be all over your finances wondering why you didn't have disposable income before and now you do. And so would your Creditors.

[jack]

the problem was past fed taxes that i could not include in the 7,do i need to stay with the same attrny or can i get a new one?,the one i had was useless,he was only concerned with his payment,i lost my car and he never did nothing with the mortgage that i want to salvage, i no longer have the SUV that was financed thru americredit,those payments were very high,that would give me 600.00 towards dis income

[jack]

with back taxes over 6000.00 and arrears on my mortgage be enough to file chapter 13?,i need advice on how to approach this,also do i need to take credit counseling before i file?,my chapter 7 was under the old law

[lrprn]

with back taxes over 6000.00 and arrears on my mortgage be enough to file chapter 13?,i need advice on how to approach this,also do i need to take credit counseling before i file?,my chapter 7 was under the old law

Jack, after a Ch 7 discharge, you must wait four years before you can file Ch 13. As SinkingFast already told you, reopening your discharged Ch 7 to convert it to Ch 13 is a very bad idea. If you have disposable income to pay a Ch 13 now, why didn't you have it when you filed Ch 7 within the last year? You could easily find yourself with your original ch 7 dismissed and no ability to file ch 13 either.

Can you help us understand if you have $6K back taxes owed and mortgage arrears and you can pay on a Ch 13 now, why you didn't file Ch 13 in the first place? And if you filed Ch 7 which was discharged successfully five months ago which paid off all your non-secured debt, why you don't have the income now to work out a payment plan with the IRS and pay the arrears on your mortgage? I'm not being judgmental, just trying to sort out what we might be able to help you with.

[SinkingFast]

How would you suddenly have arrears on your mortgage??

You couldn't have been in arrears on the mortgage when you filed Ch 7, or you couldn't have kept the house. In order to file Ch 7 and keep your home, you have to be current on mortgage payments.

As to the taxes,............ They may not have been dischargeable. That may be why your previous attny did not include them in your recent BK.

And for the SUV,......... Attnys and Trustees have to believe the car payment will not cause undue financial hardship on the Debtor/Filer, or they simply will not let you reaffirm the loan. Also, in order to keep a vehicle thru Ch 7 BK, you must be current on your auto loan payments. If you were paying a high payment on the SUV, OR you were not current on the loan, that could be why you lost the vehicle in the previous BK.

Possibly your attny did not explain all of this to you. But, just because you did not get the outcome you hoped for or expected does not mean your attny did not act in your best interest or according to the Law.