Chap 13 questions

[dscurlock]

Who decides on what your payments will be?
I will assume it is the Trustee, but will the
attorney have an estimate, I do not want to
go through the entire process, and i find out
its just to much...

I also have a $108k house in TX that
i do not wish to keep, i probably get
rid of it on a short sale, so i may not
have to worry about that to much
being added to my total. at the moment
we are renting the house for $900/mo
which pays the mortg right now, what happens
to the renter once i file chap 13, and who
would get the renters check, the trustee?


I owe $15,000k on my car, what does that mean?
will i continue to pay the $15k, or will i pay
what the car is actually worth? I just am
not sure how the trustee would handle this....

and beween my wife and I, our debt is
$100,000+ (unsecured) will this be reduced, i do not
see how this can be paid back, how
long is a chap 13 normally run, 3 years ?

our disposable income is around $1500-$2000/mo

does this mean we would loose every penny of this?
how about money in case of emergencies?

what about our school needs, my wife and i also
take classes every term.

What happens to the $10k i have in savings?


Thank-You for your help.

[lrprn]

Who decides on what your payments will be? I will assume it is the Trustee, but will the attorney have an estimate, I do not want to go through the entire process, and i find out its just to much...

Your Ch 13 payment is set by how much disposable income shows on the Means Test and the Schedules. It is not set by your trustee. If you pay a lawyer his/her retainer, they will run the Means Test and Schedules so you'll know how much of a monthly payment you may be facing in Ch 13.

I also have a $108k house in TX that i do not wish to keep, i probably get rid of it on a short sale, so i may not have to worry about that to much being added to my total. at the moment we are renting the house for $900/mo which pays the mortg right now, what happens to the renter once i file chap 13, and who would get the renters check, the trustee?

If you give the house up, the house isn't yours to rent any longer so you don't get the money. Various things could happen to the renter, but most of the time they will be asked to leave so your mortgage company can auction the house after it is foreclosed.

I owe $15,000k on my car, what does that mean? will i continue to pay the $15k, or will i pay
what the car is actually worth? I just am not sure how the trustee would handle this....

Depends on if you want to keep the car, how much equity you have in it, and if your state's exemptions can protect it or not. What state are you living in now and have you been there for the last two years?

and beween my wife and I, our debt is $100,000+ (unsecured) will this be reduced, i do not
see how this can be paid back, how long is a chap 13 normally run, 3 years ?

Most Ch 13 cases run 60 months these days. It's just too complicated for me to explain again how your monthly payments work to pay off only a % of your non-secured debts - do a search for that in the forum. I just answered this question for another poster two days ago.

our disposable income is around $1500-$2000/mo

Did you get this figure from a lawyer who did the Means Test or did you figure this out yourself? In Ch 13, it's WAY more complicated to figure out how much disposable income you have than just subtracting your expenses from your income.

does this mean we would loose every penny of this? how about money in case of emergencies?

In Ch 13 all of your disposable income goes to paying back your debts, but you get to keep your assets. There is no emergency money left in your Ch 13 budget - that's why Ch 13 filers are such dedicated budget freaks. It's the only way to scrimp together an emergency fund to tide us over when something bad happens. Welcome to the reality of Ch 13. This is why you need a REALLY good lawyer on your side who knows the trustee and local court customs inside and out so you get a plan you can survive for 5 years.

what about our school needs, my wife and i also take classes every term.

If you are borrowing the money for school, you can still get loans for school while you are in bankruptcy if you have your trustee's prior permission.

What happens to the $10k i have in savings?

Depends on your state's exemptions and how much cash can be protected. Frankly most states don't allow anything near $10K - you may have to spend most of it before filing. A good question to ask an experienced bk lawyer in your area.

Now....please, dscurlock....go read the Ch 13 forum stickys and do some searches in the Ch 13 forum before posting more questions.

You're a student so it's also fine to do some Ch 13 homework on your own too. Read these two easy-to-understand resources about how Ch 13 works -

http://www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts/bankruptcybasics/chapter13.html

http://moranlaw.net/13workings.htm#Chapter%2013%20practice

THEN come back and ask more questions - hopefully no more than 2-3 at once next time....whew!

[MajorMike]

LOL I was thinking of you Irprn when I saw this post. There is so much info on this forum to find out answers ( as I found myself ) This poster IM'd me to ask me questions and I told him the same thing. He needs to go to see a few attorneys and get an idea of what is in store. As far as emergency money, again depends on your trustee and lawyer too. I know we can live with our payment. It's so much lower now and we will have emergency money and not be on a tight budget anymore. Now, BEFORE we were, when we had to pay all the min. pmts. We're not going to have a problem anymore with money like most 13 filers. After we make the trustee payment, we will still have plenty of income left over depending on commissions and future bonuses and our trustee lets us keep anything after confirmation, including our refunds. The atty took our last 2 months avg pay to figure our payment out but sometimes our checks are high. Going from paying $3,000 a month in bills ( not including rent ) down to $800 is a huge relief. We were killing ourselves, working extra jobs etc.
Chapter 13 is a Godsend for us. It may not be for others. This is why you need to go see an attorney.