New to this forum and some questions

[imbroke2]

I've been lurking around here for a while and thought that you are all pretty helpful so I thought I'd ask my questions to you since my lawyer is apparently too busy to call us back. We just filed 13 in April. Our meeting with the creditors/trustee is next week. I am so nervous about it. On top of that, my husband just lost his job 2 weeks ago. What happens now? Will they automatically dismiss it since he's unemployed? He is getting the full benefits from unemployment, but it's under what he's supposed to be getting according to the schedule we set up. It's a 5-year plan. We want to keep the house and cars. We only have about $14,000 unsecured and the rest is secured; I think it was a total of 42K between both.

[tofargone]

The goal of a 13 is to reorganize your debt into a workable plan. To do this you must be gainfully employed and making enough to support the plan. If you are working and can fulfill the plan than you should be fine. I don't think they will let unemployment count as a steady income. You need to get a hold of your lawyer ASAP to discuss this with him/her.

A few questions for you,

What state are you in.

Are you in the arears on house or cars that you want to keep. ( if so can you get caught up ).

If you can save the items you want you may be able to convert to a 7 and get through this quicker.

Good luck

[imbroke2]

I'm in IL.
I am employed full time myself. We are way behind on the house and several months on the cars. Can't catch up on any of them. We have been trying to get a hold of the lawyer. My husband mentioned it to his paralegal or whomever has our case and all she said 2 weeks ago was, "let's hope you have a job by then." He has had interviews, but no dice.

[tofargone]

I would hate to give any advice in this situation since that last thing that you want is for them to dismiss your case. I guess you need to do a little soul searching, I don't know what your husband did, but if he can't find anything that pays close to what he was making you may need to look at your options and what is important, ie house or cars. I was in the same situation ( in WI ) We went with a 13 to save our house. We were lucky in the fact that my salary pays all of the bills and the plan payment. My wife picked up a full time job so that we could actually get and stay ahead. We though about a 7, but we would have lost 100K in equity in our house so we decided to tough out our 60 month sentance.


Hopefully your lawyer has a rabbit left in his hat for you.

Good luck, let us know what he says.

[imbroke2]

Okay, finally heard back from the lawyer and he told my husband that as long as we can make the mortgage and the BK payments, that it shouldn't be a problem-that's what they'll be looking at. The payments are already being deducted automatically from my payroll and the mortgage won't be a problem. Now, about all that gas I put into my car to get to work and the food for the kids…