Almost Done with Ch. 13

[srehbeger]

I have a question...according to my records, I have two payments remaining in my 60 month plan ( I filed under the old law). I went online to look at my records yesterday and saw that I only owe 2 more creditors included in the plan for a total of around $1100. The trustee still had a balance on hand of over $1800. I was not paying any to unsecured creditors. Does the remaining payments get distributed to the unsecured creditors or am I done making payments?

[justbroke]

I have a question...according to my records, I have two payments remaining in my 60 month plan ( I filed under the old law). I went online to look at my records yesterday and saw that I only owe 2 more creditors included in the plan for a total of around $1100. The trustee still had a balance on hand of over $1800. I was not paying any to unsecured creditors. Does the remaining payments get distributed to the unsecured creditors or am I done making payments?

Well, the Trustee still has to reconcile everything and may have some (shouldn't though) Administrative claims to pay yet.

I would say that the balance is sufficient to pay the other two. Plus, most Plans include a Trustee fee of 10% where the Trustee really only is entitled to 7.5% (like in my District). They say this is to cover any fluctuations in the Trustee fee during the Plan.

What this does is leave you with a surplus at the end of your Plan. That surplus will be returned to you.

I'm guessing that the $1,800 is the surplus from the difference in the Plan Trustee Fee and the Actual Trustee Fee.

[Flamingo]

Make your two last remaining payments on your Plan. When you make your last one, contact your attorney and let him/her know you are sending in the last payment. When the Trustee receives your last payment, you should get a letter from him/her stating what will now take place and the timeframe involved. What will occur is that your Trustee will send all remaining payments to creditors and also send to all creditors documentation they will have to sign and send back that they were paid in full under the Plan. Those documents need to be returned to the Trustee. Your Trustee will also audit your Plan and if there are any overages, you will receive them. To give you an idea of this process as to timing, we paid off our Plan in mid-April 2006; we received the letter from our Trustee in mid-June 2006 describing the scenerio I stated above. Our discharge was dated 8/30/06. It is not a quick process as you can see and generally takes 2 to 3 months.

[srehbeger]

I was just thinking maybe I didn't need to make any more payments. From looking online, there was more than enough money on hand to cover all of the remaining balance and interest.

Is it normal for them to then take that extra money and distribute it among unsecured if you weren't previously paying them?

[justbroke]

I was just thinking maybe I didn't need to make any more payments. From looking online, there was more than enough money on hand to cover all of the remaining balance and interest.

Is it normal for them to then take that extra money and distribute it among unsecured if you weren't previously paying them?

No, they can't distribute any more than what the Plan called for! You must continue to make your Plan payments.

As i wrote, the extra is probably the overage of the Trustee Administrative fee. All will be reconciled.

[Flamingo]

I was just thinking maybe I didn't need to make any more payments. From looking online, there was more than enough money on hand to cover all of the remaining balance and interest.

Is it normal for them to then take that extra money and distribute it among unsecured if you weren't previously paying them?

You need to make all payments to complete your Plan. If you don't send the last two payments in, it will create all sorts of issues (never go by what's online/PACER - call your attorney) so make them and it will all be over shortly. I know how hard it is when you get to that point and you want that cash in your pocket but now is not the time to mess things up.

[srehbeger]

Thanks for the info! I have an email in to my attorney right now. I just hate waiting the 3 days it takes for them to reply. That extra money sure would be nice right now! I will continue to make payments until I hear otherwise. Thanks again.

[2ndChanceTx]

The other option is to call the Trustee directly and ask them. I have an attorney, but just called the trustee to see if I needed to just pay the balance on my plan base or the full payment amount. I had a tax return applied to a tax liability and it reduced my plan base. Anyway I just paid what was left on the plan base after talking with the trustee.

[southerncomfort]

In my case, my plan base was a certain amount and when I started my unsecureds were scheduled to get 0%. However, by the end of the plan, with my income tax refund, I ended up paying 4% to unsecured creditors. It depends on your plan details. If the plan specified paying in a certain amount then I would definitely make those last payments. My trustee did disperse the 4% to the unsecureds even though originally they were scheduled to receive nothing.

[srehbeger]

Just to update everyone...I heard back from my attorney today. They said that they were going to file a modification to end the bankruptcy. The $1800 that the trustee's office has on hand will cover the remaining $1100 balance plus the $400 fee to file the modification fee. He said not to make any more payments. They are filing the motion tomorrow. There is no negative effect from this. He said they can do this because my plan was set up to pay 0% to unsecured creditors. So in his words.....I'm finally done. WOOHOO!!!!!

[krielly]

Um, something seems fishy here.

Why do you want to pay your attorney $400 to modify your plan to end it early? You only have 2 more payments left, and any money left over will come back to you once your trustee reconciles your account.

Unless I'm missing something, you are throwing away $400.................

[srehbeger]

No...I won't get any money back if I make the last two payments. The plan was set up with 0% to be paid to unsecured. Therefore, any overpayments will be distributed to the unsecured creditors. By paying the $400 fee to modify my plan, it will save me two months of payments.

[srehbeger]

FYI...

My modification plan was approved. No more payments! 13network now shows my status as "About to close." This has been a long 5 years but it is finally here. I can't wait. Thanks to all the posters. Although I haven't posted much, it has been so nice to have a place to go to find answers to all my questions!

Thanks again!

[justbroke]

FYI...

My modification plan was approved. No more payments! 13network now shows my status as "About to close." This has been a long 5 years but it is finally here. I can't wait. Thanks to all the posters. Although I haven't posted much, it has been so nice to have a place to go to find answers to all my questions!

Thanks again!

Very very good! Nice to hear! Congratulations.

[holding on]

Congrats!! Glad to see an attorney being proactive and stepping up to the plate big time.