Question I feel like I'm losing my mind...

[TakeItAll]

I hope I put this in the right spot.
hello all!

So we entered into Chapter 13 in 2018, after a failed attempt to own a business (yay american dream fail!) and a 2nd mortgage to pay back.
I feel like this was the worst decision we ever made. We were strapped before this but apparently made too much $$$ to file chapter 7.
An automatic stay was granted for the house and car.
What they don't tell you, is the house and car people stop talking to you. No contact No paperwork. They make it 1000 times harder to pay anything back.
Our mortage company has sold our mortgage to a 3rd party company. Every single year. It's been resold to another company. Only allowing us to make over the phone calls every month to make payments. It's sold every year, which means I have to make sure the taxes and insurance get paid by the new company, EVERY time. It's madness.
On top of that, the car company. As of Dec 2022 we paid our car off. That's when our repayments went higher for the chapter 13 trustee.
We were so glad not to have that payment!! We could breathe a bit after 4 years !
Until last week. We got an email from our lawyers that the car company is filing to remove the automatic stay for our car loan. We owe $7,100. I had no idea.

They gave us 5 days until the hearing. There's no way we could repay that in 5 days let alone a week!
The motion was granted to lift the stay.
I attempted to speak to the car loan company. They don't want to help us. The car is maybe worth 3k and we owe $7100. It's my only form of transportation for work. They will not do a repayment plan. We don't have $7100 to just fork over.
How do I do this? Sell it? Let it go? Has anyone been thru this?

We're almost thru is horrible mess too! I feel like Rocky .... taking blows and barely standing. I guess I'm just lost and need some kind of direction of where to go. The lawyers we have suck. I'm ready to throw in the towel.
It's been so confusing and horrible and embarrassing. I'm just tired of struggling.

Thanks for reading this if you got thru all my whiny bs. And thank you in advance for any advice!

[justbroke]

There is something else going on here that I simply can't understand. You couldn't have paid off the vehicle AND the creditor not only received relief from the automatic stay. If the stay was lifted, then that means that you weren't paying.

A Chapter 13 can be confusing when it comes to vehicles. I'll explain that later based on how you answer the question below.

Were you paying the vehicle "outside" the plan (directly)? Also, was the claim bifurcated (split) into a secured and unsecured claim?

[TakeItAll]

We were told we could keep the house and car in the chapter 13. We had to pay them seperatly, on top of the bi- weekly wage garnishment to the trustee.

As for as a secured and unsecured split claim, I'd have to look. I dont have that answer.

All I know is our trustee payment went up after Dec of 2022. I remember the lawyer pointing that out because he said the car would be paid off. Our last car payment was dec 2022.
I tried to ask the car loan company where they got the number for the $7100? Was it missed payment from before we started bankruptcy? Have we really been that far behind the whole time? They would not even talk to me about it since our case was given to the courts.

[justbroke]

There is something strange going on. Your lawyer would need to dig into the details.

Here are my thoughts:

• If the claim was bifurcated, then you would have paid inside the plan (through the Trustee). So I don't think it was a bifurcated claim.
• If it wasn't bifurcated, what was the amount that you owed? Is the interest being calculated correctly? Were you paying your normal payment that you had before filing or were you paying less? If you were paying less than the contractual amount... I can see the issue and the lender/creditor would be correct.

Yes, you cannot talk to the creditor because they could get in trouble for attempting to collect a debt. Only your attorney should be talking to the lender. There is a bunch of missing data here and if the creditor/lender proved that you didn't pay the contractual payment (directly) over the last 4 years then they would be correct. I hope you weren't paying less than the contractual amount or that you miscalculated the last payment date as shown on the retail installment agreement.

[TakeItAll]

Thanks for your responses.

The attorney dropped it in my lap to handle with the car company.

We were making the same payment that we set up when we bought the ccar.No lesser payment

And maybe we did mis calculate. I have no idea. When we filed things were bad. But wouldn't it have been disclosed by the car company that we were behind, when we filed?
We haven't had a paper or email or any kind of communication with the car company since we started bankruptcy.
7 months later, we still owe?

I just spoke with another representative from the car company... they will only accept the $7100 to stop repossession.
So come take my car that's worth 3k, so I can't work, to pay back the $7100, I owe. Seems legit. Very frustrated.

[justbroke]

You would have the car payment plus any attorney fees they had in the bankruptcy. They may have been charging a late fee for every month as well. See if your lawyer will write a letter to the lender so that you can talk directly with them. There is something in the accounting that is not adding up. [No pun intended.]

Maybe you can get them to give you a running total from the day you filed bankruptcy showing outstanding principal, new charges, payments, and balance after each payment was made. That will give you a complete accounting.

[Carmella]

The thing about the car sounds so strange. We had a car we paid the payments per the original loan and were not behind on it when we went into BK13. When the end date for the loan was coming up the bank would not talk to me and give a pay off balance or tell me the exact end date. They contacted my attorney to get permission to talk to me and after that was granted the bank told me all the information.

[flashoflight]

Besides the suggestion above, I would ask your attorney to get a copy of the proof of claim filed by the car lender and a copy of the motion for relief from stay. The relief from motion stay will have an exhibit to show why you owe $7100. You can get both of them yourself from PACER but PACER has a steep learning curve for the beginner and you could end up owing money in PACER search fees if you mess up, which is easy to do.

To buy some extra time from the repo man, you need to park the car at least half a mile from work and home. Yes, that means walking 4 times a day (40 minutes) because once your car is gone, it's over. If you have a garage at home, make sure the car is in there and always close/lock the garage door. If you park it in the employee lot even if behind a gate, it will be gone soon. It's only a matter of time before the repo man follows your car and then snatches it, so you need to figure out what's going on quick.