Converting Chapter 13 to 7 old law in GA

[peachygirl1972]

We live in Georgia. We filed for Chapter 13 a year ago under the old law and we would like to convert it to a chapter 7. We have not missed any payments on our plan.

Unfortunately, we are barely making it while paying the plan. We have a house that we are having to sell because we could not afford to keep it and continue to pay the trustee. The house has a contract on it and hopefully, we will get to close in the next couple of weeks. Depending on if the court will sign off on it.

Anyway, after the trustee is finished with us, we will have no equity left!

We have 1 car worth about a whopping $500 and our other car is included in the bankruptcy. My husband makes around $63,000 and we are a family of 3.
Do you think we will be able to convert to a 7?

If we do convert to 7, can we keep our little bit of equity coming out of our house?

[SinkingFast]

You filed Old Law, so if you can convert without being dismissed, Old Law rules will apply to a Ch 7 for you.

You won't have to haggle with Median Income, the Means Test, or any of that.

If you filed joint, you may be able to exempt your equity in the house. The Homestead Exemption used to be $5K/filer or $10K for a joint filing. Exemptions have been updated. They are double now. I don't know if Old Law rules apply that Old Law exemptions may apply as well.

You really need to run all this by an attny. If you used one to file your Ch 13 that you were satisfied with, call him/her and set up an appointment to chat. See where you are and what your options are.

[peachygirl1972]

Well, our attorney is having to file a motion, so that we can close on our house and he is trying to get the trustee to let us keep $4,000, so that we can move into another house. There will only be $3,700 left.

I am just worried because of our income of $65,000. Under the old law are there any income restrictions?

What about my car that is included in my bankruptcy, will I have to turn that in?

More than anything, I want to go ahead and have the whole thing discharged, so that we can rebuild our credit and at the end of 2 years, we can get an FHA loan to buy the house we are moving into.

As soon the house closes, we are meeting with our attorney!! Can't Wait!!! I hope to be FREE AT LAST!!!

[SinkingFast]

Are those payments currently being made by the Trustee?? When you filed your Ch 13, did you reaffirm that loan or did you do a ride thru??

As long as your Ch 13 is in good standing and/or once you convert to Ch 7, you should still be protected by the automatic stay. While you're under the stay, the lender would have to file a Motion to Lift Stay in order to repo the car.

The auto lender is more interested in $$/mo than getting a car back to sell. Most likely, as long as you keep up the payments, you'll get to keep the car.

Be sure and ask your attny about that as well.

If you do convert, you won't be subject to the New Law, the Means Test, or the Median Income. Your case will be handled now just like it would have been then had you decided to file Ch 7 under the Old Law.

[peachygirl1972]

The payments are being made by the trustee.

The payment on the car was included in the 13 and we are on the 3 year plan. We were upside down in the car when we filed, so what we owed on the car was dropped by $5,000 or $6,000 and they lowered the interest rate (I think)

So, if we keep the car, will the payments go back to what they were originally or be what they are now???? I don't even know what they are now, we received a statement from the trustee a few months ago and it didn't make a bit of sense to me!!