Lawyer suggests filing motion to discharge with Judge

[pedsrn85]

Here is the deal. We had a 36 month plan. All monies where payed into the plan as of Dec 17th 2007. We saw no action on our case until March 27 2008. At that point all but 2 of our creditors were paid. Another month has now past and still those creditors have not been paid. These 2 creditors are due to receive $3,225.89 leaving a balance on hand in our plan of $14862.55. As it is now the end of the month, it would appear that yet another month will pass before these guys are paid.

To complicate matters we are ready to purchase a home and have found the perfect home. The payment is actually the same as what we have paid the BK plan for the last 3 years. The mortgage broker says she can get us a FHA all she needs is the discharge or permission from the court to proceed. We currently rent a 3 bedroom apartment for my family of 5. If this does not happen soon we will lose the house.

My attorney tells me that the only thing we or he can do is file a motion with the BK Judge requesting that we be granted our discharge because we have met the terms of our plan. Of course whenever a lawyer files anything there is additional monies involved.

At this point I can live with the fee but it all feels strange to me for some reason. My questions to the people on the forum are:

1. Does this make sense and sound reasonable?
2. Has anyone ever experienced or heard of this before?
3. Is there any reason to not do as the lawyer suggests?

My family is going crazy living in this cramped apartment and it would appear we could be looking at 6+ months past meeting our plan base without a discharge. Any advice and insight would be appreciated.

[HHM]

You don't really need to care about whether certain creditors are paid...that is no the issue. The issue is that the chapter 13 trustee appears to be dropping the ball on you case administration.

Yes, in one sense, it is odd and we can only speculate as to the reason (probably a lazy, or otherwise overworked chapter 13 trustee).

But you only have 2 options. (1) call the trustee and find out the reason for the delay, or (2) do as your attorney suggests and file the motion to discharge.

[krielly]

Has your attorney ever contacted the trustee to discuss the situation? Seems odd that he would not try that approach before filing a petition with the court......

[pedsrn85]

Might as well spit in the wind

We have attempted to contact our trustee and our attorney has as well. It appears that this trustee is like Oz behind the curtain. We never get a direct response from the trustee just her staff.

Usually goes something like this:
We email or leave a phone message requesting information. We receive the same nothing information that we can get from the National Data center or 13network. Once they even sent us a print out of that same information. Other than that the trustee's office directs us to speak to our attorney.

It appears our attorney must use the same methods of communication as we do and receives about the same results. All along our attorney has said it will be done when the trustee finishes it and that is it. Now that it has been so long and I am pressing him he offers this solution.

I am really not sure what to think other than it seems like I do not have the greatest attorney or trustee.

[HHM]

Well, don't blame your attorney for this issue. Your attorney has no more control or access to the trustee than you do.

[Skouris]

I am in a similar situation, now more than 6 months past the point where my payments equaled my plan base. All of my creditors have been paid and I am no longer making payments to the Trustee. There has just been no movement in my case whatsoever. My attorney finally filed a motion for my case to be discharged. The hearing is scheduled for May 21st, and I am really hoping to receive my discharge soon afterwards. What state are you in? I am in the Western district of PA. I have never experienced a slower moving system in my life. At one point my attorney filed a motion to increase payments that were being made to my mortgage company. The plan was confirmed, but a year later the payments had still not been increased. That totally messed up my plan, because in the meantime my unsecured creditors received their full payments. My wage garnishment was stopped and I started paying the mortgages myself. I had to pay over $1000 to bring my first mortgage current, and then all of a sudden they decided to finally increase the payments and sent the mortgage company another large payment, effectively paying them double. I cannot tell you how badly I want this to be over.