Ch 13 case closed no dispursement made

[pedsrn85]

Hi all everyone here is so helpful. Made last ch 13 payment early Dec. No dispursement of monies yet. emailed someone from 13network.com she said attorney needs to send a letter saying we have met agreement & case is ready to be reviewed. When we talked to him in December he said he has nothing to do it is in the trustees hand. What the heck is going on.If he was supposed to send a letter & he didn't we have sat for 2 months in holding. I forwarded the email to him but he has not responded it's been 2 days. The NDC says case closed as of 2/10/08 but all the money (our money) is sitting collecting interest for them. We are waiting for our discharge paper to make an offer on a house which hopefully isn't going to be bought out from under us , while somebody figures out who needs to get the ball rolling. Does anyone have any experience in this or any knowledge of this. Thank You all so much for all of your wisdom.:

[lrprn]

Discharge procedures in a Ch 13 case are not the same as Ch 7. At the end of the Ch 13 case, the trustee has to do an audit to ensure all monies have been dispersed appropriately and submit a report to the court. Then the discharge is officially entered. This process typically takes several months and can take up to six months in more complex cases.

Until your trustee's audit report is filed, you will have to sit tight. Any extra monies left over in your Ch 13 case will be returned to you - there's just no way to predict accurately when that will be.

[Thought Doctor]

Just keep in mind that failure by your lawyer to file a report or a required letter timely MIGHT constitute legal malpractice...and you might have an action if it results in damages to you. Just a thought...keep all options open. As I have said before, no one cares much about you and your family except you and our family...

[Flamingo]

Hi all everyone here is so helpful. Made last ch 13 payment early Dec. No dispursement of monies yet. emailed someone from 13network.com she said attorney needs to send a letter saying we have met agreement & case is ready to be reviewed. When we talked to him in December he said he has nothing to do it is in the trustees hand. What the heck is going on.If he was supposed to send a letter & he didn't we have sat for 2 months in holding. I forwarded the email to him but he has not responded it's been 2 days. The NDC says case closed as of 2/10/08 but all the money (our money) is sitting collecting interest for them. We are waiting for our discharge paper to make an offer on a house which hopefully isn't going to be bought out from under us , while somebody figures out who needs to get the ball rolling. Does anyone have any experience in this or any knowledge of this. Thank You all so much for all of your wisdom.:

It can take from 60-90 days at least to get your discharge papers after the Trustee has your case in hand after your last payment. As the other poster (moderator) stated, an auditing needs to be done and there is a form that the Trustee sends to each and every creditor involved in your Plan that they must sign and return to the Trustee. Your funds cannot be disbursed until all those signed forms are returned. We paid our plan off early via an approved refinancing 4 years into our 5 year plan (April 2006). In June 2006 we received a letter from the Trustee advising us what will occur over the next several weeks as our case is discharged (note we paid 4/06 and got the letter two months later). We received our discharge at the end of August 2006. If you have a lot of creditors or there is a problem with the auditing, it may delay things even more. While your Plan may have a 3 year or 5 year term, it takes several months beyond that to close it out for discharge. I can understand your dismay at wanting to move quickly after making your last payment but legal wheels turn slowly as many of us know or find out. All the above is done by your trustee, not your attorney. Your attorney may also be awaiting information from the trustee. The best thing you can do right now is to have your attorney find out exactly where the process is at the moment and advise you since you are trying to make plans and need some further information.