Unavoidable Situations after Chapter 13 Discharge

[Flamingo]

Whew, I joined this forum a few months back but could not log in and post! Thankfully I finally got in here! I have a situation which I am sure most of us recently discharged from Chapter 13 have encountered or will certainly enounter. We kept our house during our 13. "Bought out" early (at 4 out of a 5 year Plan) due to many reasons; one of which was the house needed major roof repairs that could not wait. We were allowed to refinance to pay off our Chapter 13 balance and get enough to pay for the roof and some other minor house repairs (replace a bad window, etc.). Most of us during the course of our 13's do not have the money to make major house repairs or replace that aging vehicle. Last month we had to take out a home equity line to finish off other work in our house that we had to put off because of the 13 and we also had to obtain two new vehicles cause the ones we had were 7 to 8 years old and with the high mileage, not worth repairing due to the enormous costs involved. We just now have mortgage debt (main new mortgage and home equity line) and one car payment (plus utilities, etc.). In plain words, what I am trying to bring out is your situation at the end of a 13. Since you cannot save money during your 13 and have to let house repairs go, patch cars to survive the plan and just plain do without stuff as much as possible, when you are out the Plan this stuff has to be repaired and the cars need replacing. And you have to try to do it without high interest fees.

Stories from others encountering this would be beneficial to all. We thankfully had the home equity to do this and were able to obtain low rates on the main mortgage (6.5% fixed 30 year this past April) and .75% over prime for our home equity (obtained October 2006). We kept our equity line low so we still have a good chunk of equity in our house even after the refinancing and home equity approval. Others don't have this...how do you make those repairs and obtain those vehicles...seems like we all have to go back into debt to get all this resolved since we cannot save during the course of our Plan years.

Would love to hear from others as to their experiences along these lines.
Thanks!

[jenrw74]

I see that this was posted several months ago but I'll put my 2 cents in. During our ch 13 my husband would receive a large annual bonus which we were allowed to keep. We would also get a large tax refund. I'm not sure if you're allowed to keep these under the new laws. It could also depend on your state and trustee. Our attorney said we were allowed to use the money for anything we needed to buy or repair for our home and old cars. This month we paid off our plan 2 yrs early with our tax refund and this year's bonus will be used for a large down payment on a much needed family vehicle after discharge, hopefully by summer. I'm sure we are the exception and not the rule when it comes to ch 13's but I thought I'd share.