High trustee payment?

[catleg]

If you have sufficient exemptions to protect your equity, or the equity is zero, you can void the judgments representing unsecured debt.

[karm43]

Does that make it harder to file chap 7 and keep your home i am up to date never been late on mort

[HHM]

If I have judgements against me and I have a mortgage that is up to date are the judgements a lien against my property?

Can be...the judgments usually need to be filed with the County Clerk's office in which you reside, but once recorded, the judgments act as a lien against your home.

[karm43]

Does anybody know?

If I have judgements against me and I have a mortgage that is up to date are the judgements a lien against my property?

[puggymoo]

are you in a 100% payback already? The overtime really shouldn't be included in the regular payments but if not paying 100% they would require you to give them whatever extra you do get. I would call the attorney and tell him again or his paralegal that this is overtime and not regular pay. Give us a little input on what they say you are paying.

[inneedofhelp]

trustee payment

hi, this is my first time posting, my trustee is using overtime I make every week to figure out my payment but the OT will not be there every week, i've tried to explain this but nobody will listen....how can I get them to understand that I've been begging my employee for the OT and it will not be there every week.

thanks for any input
Mike

[MelCapp]

This was a great post. I fought with my attorney tooth and nail about the Means Test vs DMI vs. Trustee payment. What we landed on was a payment that is way too high because she would not fight for us. There were MANY ways that she failed us, but she was one of those that just said "you make too much" and forced us into a 13 (to get more $$ perhaps?) and now after a lot of research I think we could have been discharged in a Chapter 7 based on a means test that was done correctly.

Now we are thinking about getting a new attorney even though we have already been confirmed and most of this awful attorney's fees have been paid. Not sure if it will come out of our pocket to pay a new one, but it's better than paying a huge monthly payment for 5 years because of attorney incompetence.

[Bearmo01]

Thank you Indebt00. How is your 13 going? May I ask who your Lawyer is?

Best wishes

[indebt00]

I got lost on what this post was really about...?? I saw OP was in AZ and read it....but basically...

the Trustee is not going to approve a plan where your plan payment makes it impossible to pay your secured debt as well...he is going to make you include the secured payments IN the plan payment.

basically there are 2 trustee's for Maricopa county...so...the Trustee is determining your plan payment and approval...so not a lot of wiggle room there....GET THE BEST LAWYER and make sure you can afford your plan. If you are having ANY doubts with this guy/plan...find another lawyer ASAP !!!!!

good luck OP

[puggymoo]

Some of us are filing chapter 13 so they can't garnish wages and charge interest.

[justbroke]

Do I need to worry about lien from HOA if my home underwater by $250k? Also, what are implications of this lien if ever recorded? Any thoughts how to deal with this? I'm assuming I can include this under chp13 plan as well. Thoughts, pls?

If you are staying in the home, yes, the lien could become a problem. The fact is that in most States, HOAs have very very very strong foreclosure powers and may even be able to do a non-judicial foreclosure on the property for, literally, the $300 you owe them.

Many HOA "liens" are statutory, meaning they are automatic as soon as the HOA issues you a bill. They don't have to record a lien in many States. I'm not sure if HOAs enjoy statutory liens in California, but they do here in Florida.

[johnjan2009]

No it can't. You will receive a discharge of the debt itself, but you won't be able to do anything with the lien. It's the lien that ties it to your home. There may be some maneuvering that you could do if you filed a complaint (to determine secured status) and the lender/creditor didn't respond. However, that strategy almost never works. You would need to have a very lazy creditor who wouldn't answer your complaint. (And even then, a summary judgment isn't necessarily in your favor even if they don't answer the complaint.)

Thanks, justbroke for the explaination... you did explain to me a lot better than the prospect lawyer did... Also, I've been behind on my HOA dues(it went up to $110 per mo.) for almost 12 mos now and was referred to ASAP collection threatening to record a lien(I was given a notice 3wks back)...Do I need to worry about lien from HOA if my home underwater by $250k? Also, what are implications of this lien if ever recorded? Any thoughts how to deal with this? I'm assuming I can include this under chp13 plan as well. Thoughts, pls?

[justbroke]

Also, any chance you know if chapter7 can help discharge 2nd loan/heloc and be treated as unsecured debts?

No it can't. You will receive a discharge of the debt itself, but you won't be able to do anything with the lien. It's the lien that ties it to your home. There may be some maneuvering that you could do if you filed a complaint (to determine secured status) and the lender/creditor didn't respond. However, that strategy almost never works. You would need to have a very lazy creditor who wouldn't answer your complaint. (And even then, a summary judgment isn't necessarily in your favor even if they don't answer the complaint.)

[muzzey58]

Please take my advice and get another lawyer ASAP! I went through this with my first lawyer. My husband owed around $106,000 in debt which was mostly credit card debt. He lost his job in 2002 and was unemployed for over 15 months. He was living on his credit cards. He wasn't able to maintain his condo payment and lost his home. I had good credit when I married him, but had to give back a bad car to the lender. The car though was only $4000. My total debt was around $7000.

My husband and I barely qualified for a chapter 13. If I hadn't worked that year we would have qualified for a 7 instead. The lawyer had us adjust our federal tax withholding allowances which increased our disposable income by almost $400 a month. I quit work because of suffering a serious shoulder/back injury from being a nurse aide. My husband agreed to let me stay at home and recuperate. I tried emailing, sending letters, phoning the law office with no success. This was a period of over 6 months after I quit work. The payments to the Trustee were high 80% of 106,000 which was based on the higher withholding allowances. I finally fired the attorney and hired my current attorney. She figured that we should have never been confirmed at that rate. We were paying $1400 a month. That year we owed the IRS $7000 in back taxes. We adjusted our withholding allowances and petitioned the court for a modification. She reduced the payments to $1150 at 55%. That was much but at least we are able to live now. No one should be paying that type of payback to the court. You need to please call your local Lawyer Referral Service which all major cities/counties have across the US. Get a second, third, fourth opinion on your case. Please be proactive in this procedure. You don't want to have to pay that outrageous payback amount. Good luck.

[johnjan2009]

Just a little information. Plan payment is NOT the DMI value calculated by the Chapter 13 Means Test on Official Form B22C. Plan payment is based upon a combination of the DMI on Form B22C and payments on secured debt (if paid through Trustee), priority debt (taxes), and the Trustee administrative fees. We have had some people complain that their plan payment was $2000 and how they were going to pay their mortgage, not knowing that the mortgage and car payment was included in the "plan" payment. I'm just trying to get people to not confuse DMI with a Chapter 13 plan payment.

As a debtor who filed and was confirmed in a Chapter 13 plan, and later converted to a Chapter 7 and was discharged, the amount of money you make is only a "factor" when determining eligibility for Chapter 7. It's not the only factor. I am over $100K over the median, and my Means Test (Chapter 7 Official Form B22A) shows negative "DMI" and my old Chapter 13 Means Test (Form B22C) showed only +$60 or so.

A Chapter 13 "plan" can also be difficult to pinpoint since any assets that are being kept may factor into the "Chapter 7 liquidation test". Each individual case can have a very intricate set of numbers to deal with and generally is "unique" to an extent.

Here's the bottom line. If you want to file Chapter 7 and are over-the-median, make sure you work with an attorney that knows that over-the-median income debtors get Chapter 7 discharges every single day. This may not mean that your numbers will work, but at least the attorney will work with you, and not just tell you that you "make too much".

Second, if you are in a Chapter 13, make sure you work with an attorney that will create a budget that works for you. Make sure that the attorney will go to bat and fight a Trustee objection to confirmation, if your lookback is NOT an indicator of your current situation. I'm tired of hearing about so many attorneys that just tell their clients, that's the payment, so "make it work". A good attorney will explain the numbers and allow you to ask questions about other factors that may influence the payment.

hey justbroke, thanks for sharing this info based on your experience. It really helps me stand up and get more details on what the attorney I'm working with is up to. Also, any chance you know if chapter7 can help discharge 2nd loan/heloc and be treated as unsecured debts? I'm over the median but just slightly on the borderline not by $100k or more Also, I like to get rid of this 2nd loan/heloc specially my home is underwater by $250k