My plan is complete. Can someone give me a time estimate regarding the next steps?

[PurplePanda]

I filed in August, 2022 and, at the time, I was under median. My income was very low when I filed but it was expected to increase during my plan. My base plan amount was only around $3,500 and it consisted of miscellaneous non-exempt property. I chose not to file CH7 because I wanted to keep my house and my attorney advised that the CH7 trustees in my district would likely force me to sell, whereas the CH13 trustees were much easier to work with and would likely not challenge my appraisal, which is exactly what occurred. As expected, my income increased significantly and I ended up paying close to $100K into my plan, which included the trustee's commission and attorney fees. I emailed my attorney in June to find out what, if anything, I needed to do on my end as the completion date was drawing near. He called me later in the day and said he talked with the trustee. He said the trustee was "very pleased" with my hard work and was willing to allow me to pay off my plan early if I was interested. The trustee allowed me to pay the final three monthly payments of $400ish in one final lump sum payment, which accelerated the ending of my plan by three months. After paying the final pay-off payment, she said she would start the finalization process. I was so happy that I was laughing and crying during the phone call with my attorney.

Yesterday, I received a letter from the trustee advising me that my plan has been completed and that no additional payments are needed. She outlined the closing process and what will happen going forward. She filed a notice with my mortgage company (which was not included in my plan) and said they have 21 days to file a response. She said after all of the checks issued to my creditors have cleared, she will file her final report and account with the court. Then, the court will review my case and the trustee's report of plan completion and issue the discharge, after which my case will be closed.

Obviously, all trustees, courts and districts are different. But could anyone give me a ballpark as to how long these final steps will take? My mortgage company has until the first of September to respond to their notice. My mortgage is current so I don't expect any delays there.

Thanks for all of your help.

[justbroke]

Anywhere from 60-90 days or more. This includes Trustee steps which take the majority of the time. This is known as the Final Report. The Trustee won't file that until they send out checks (usually monthly around the first of the month). They then wait for any checks to be returned (due to bad address of creditor moved). Once they know all checks are good they do a final audit. Once the final audit is completed they will produce their Final Report and submit that to the bankruptcy court. Once that is submitted the discharge is entered. (In some districts the debtor's attorney or Trustee must file a Motion for Entry of Discharge. I don't know if that is how your district works.)

So, it's a waiting game. Expect 60-90 days. If you're lucky it could be about 45 days from now if all goes quickly (about October 1 or so). Or later. There's just no way to tell.

Congratulations on the early plan completion.

[shipo]

As justbroke stated, every Trustee and every district is different; in my case my attorney advised not to even attempt to pay my plan off more than three weeks early as my Trustee was inclined to see red flags for payments earlier than that. That said, my coveted discharge came through almost exactly 4-weeks after my final payment, but the final closure took closer to 5-months.