what if??? may need to sell house and am in a Ch.13

[jane taylor]

Not only is our current mortgage killing us, the upkeep on the house, mainly the yard is just more than we can manage now. Especially with my husband having been so ill. Also, the house does need some minor repairs--stuff like new carpet, painting, and a minor roofing repair.

My questions is as follows:

IF we decided to sell, would it help financially? For instance, say our mortage went from $1500 to $1100--would the trustee take the money we saved?

I know we would have to have the trustee's permission to sell and then to purchase another place. We have very little equity in our house.

I realize we should have moved last year before considering filing, but we just could not bring ourselves to do that and thought that the house would be a good investment long term.

Right now we are not having any trouble paying the trustee, but trying to keep up that house is more than we can do right now.

Just wondering, "What if . . . ?"

Thanks!
jane

[Credit Hater]

How much of a percentage of your debt is being paid back?

It's my understanding that if your work income goes up by 10% or more, then it has to be reported to the trustee and they may increase your monthly payments. I don't think this will apply to someone adjusting their disposable income though. If it does, then thats pretty unfair. Soo much can happen during a 5 year plan, and some people, like in your situation has to adjust their living expenses to manage things better. This is a good question for the lawyer if you can't get a good answer here.

[SinkingFast]

This is just a guess here, Jane, but,............

If you have enough medical bills and living costs increases to offset the difference in payments, the Trustee probably won't bother with your plan. But if you have primarily the same expenses after the sale as you had before, with a lower rent/mortgage payment, the Trustee will probably increase your plan payments accordingly.

When we Consulted with one attny, he ran us a Ch 13 plan. He said because we were renting, if we wanted to buy a house, we could. AFTER we'd been in the plan for a year, AND with Trustee's approval. Then he noted that we'd have to go with something where the payments were about $300/mo less than we paid in rent to allow for maint and upkeep of the house.