Pre-Discharge question on chapter 13

[nsupanda]

Just for clarification... how many courses are you required to take total? I took the first course a few weeks before filing. Then we took the second course right after filing. Is there another course I'll need to take before I discharge in 5 years?

[newbie2]

Just for clarification... how many courses are you required to take total? I took the first course a few weeks before filing. Then we took the second course right after filing. Is there another course I'll need to take before I discharge in 5 years?

No, there are just the two.

[wooisme]

Thanks everyone. I'm sorry for being short with anyone here. It's just been 5 long years and I'm frazzled beyond belief. Yes I did the course online then my husband did the course online. I emailed both certificates to the lawyer with a note asking him to verify he received it and to please file this with trustee and the court. I also MAILED the certificates to him just in case he has some kind of spam filter thing and he doesn't check it because i trust no one.

What else do they do, like what is the process of discharge? I have or make no support or anything like that. my last payment is in oct . oct 17 but i mail it in the 5th to the trustee. does anyone know what happens after that and do i have to do anything

[lrprn]

Thanks everyone. I'm sorry for being short with anyone here.

We've all been stressed and frustrated and as our plans wind down to the finish, the pressure mounts. We understand - no problem

What else do they do, like what is the process of discharge?

Ask your lawyer to check with your trustee's office to double-check when your last payment is due. You can also check this on your trustee's website on 13Network or the National Data Center where the number of payments already made is documented.

Keep making your payments until your trustee's office confirms that all payments have been received. In most districts you'll be notified by a letter mailed to the home address listed on your case from the bk court. If you overpay, then the trustee will return that amount to you.

Once your last Ch 13 payment is received, your trustee does an audit of your case to ensure all the creditors have received the payments they are entitled to. This audit can take anywhere from a few weeks up to 4 months depending on how busy the trustee's office is and their caseload. Once your 60th payment is made, then ask your lawyer to ask the trustee to give permission to halt your payments while the audit is done, especially if your payments are being automatically withdrawn from your paychecks directly and sent to your trustee.

In most districts once the audit is completed and everything is fine, if the filer has overpaid then the trustee sends you a check for the amount extra that was paid in and the bk court will notify all the creditors in your plan that your plan has been completed. In our local bk court, our creditors then have 30 days to notify the court if they have objections to the discharge. (Our lawyer told us that this almost never happens.) Once the 30 days are up, our court told us it would take another 1-2 weeks to complete the discharge and send us our discharge notice in the mail. Ask your lawyer if this is the same process in your local bk court.

You are so close to being done!! Congratulations on surviving the long five years - it's quite a feat and you should be very, very proud of yourselves!

[fslady]

I'm just 6 months behind you in being finished - and I'm counting down the months.
My Trustee's office emailed me about 2 years ago offering a class in my area. I couldn't go at that time but then about 6 months later the Trustee's office contacted me again with a reminder that I needed to take a pre-discharge class and they were offering another one in my area. I attended that class, got my certificate of completion, copied it for me, and sent the original to my attorney's office. I am really glad that they were so on the ball.

[Billssuck]

I sure am glad that I read this post! I'm 10 months from being finished with my payments and I knew I needed the pre-discharge course but I thought it was much closer to the end of the plan (like the month surrounding it). Whew...I will get to it now. Thanks. Oh...and it was helpful reading what lrpn wrote about what else to expect from the court.

Oh...just went and got my big stack of bk paperwork and found one little line that said to complete the course 45 days after filing. Really wish my attorney had told me that but at least I read it here on this board. Just signed up for my course with SolidStartFinancial.com. Thanks so much for the heads up!

[wooisme]

See I thought the same thing that you did the last course around the end ...i'm just glad i checked here and did it. Now I'm glad I mailed the certificates to the attorney cause he sure isn't answering me to tell me he received it after I asked him to verify that he received it...but in all fairness he could be on vacation it can be anything. I would imagine the bankruptcy courts today are SWAMPED.

I get 2 statements a year....one in January and one in July and I'm waiting for this statement. my plan was for 5 years but the way the payments were set up it was for 58 months which oct would be the last payment ....I cannot believe these stupid creditors get another say in all of this. i mean really that was what the confirmation hearing was all about...no objections, bla bla bla now all of a sudden they have a say in if they have objections to the discharge. they agreed to the plan, can't they be held in penalty of perjury! crazy. well i hope i don't have to keep on making payment way past oct. i pay them myself because my husband's pension plan will not do it so i have permission to pay it. i haven't been late not one time knock on wood. i just want it over, it's bringing back horrible memories for me about the beginning and how my husband almost divorced me over this since , (please don't judge) but I have bypolar and ocd and had like 21 credit cards. o my.

[wooisme]

I don't think the creditors during the discharge proceedings can object ...this is what I found:

in chapter 12 and chapter 13 cases, the debtor is usually entitled to a discharge upon completion of all payments under the plan. As in chapter 7, however, discharge may not occur in chapter 13 if the debtor fails to complete a required course on personal financial management. A debtor is also ineligible for a discharge in chapter 13 if he or she received a prior discharge in another case commenced within time frames discussed the next paragraph. Unlike chapter 7, creditors do not have standing to object to the discharge of a chapter 12 or chapter 13 debtor. Creditors can object to confirmation of the repayment plan, but cannot object to the discharge if the debtor has completed making plan payments.

[bam531]

Wow..that was something I never heard about either. Website says we have 16 months left but by my calculations..we only have 6 months left , so definitely want to get this post discharge class done in time.. But if I contact our attorney and ask about this..does he charge us for asking this question and/ or does he contact trustee?? Haven't had any contact with neither one for almost 4 years now because I am afraid to ask him any questions for fear that he will contact trustee or charge us a fee for asking..Any ideas??

[nsupanda]

Wow..that was something I never heard about either. Website says we have 16 months left but by my calculations..we only have 6 months left , so definitely want to get this post discharge class done in time.. But if I contact our attorney and ask about this..does he charge us for asking this question and/ or does he contact trustee?? Haven't had any contact with neither one for almost 4 years now because I am afraid to ask him any questions for fear that he will contact trustee or charge us a fee for asking..Any ideas??

I might be COMPLETELY wrong... but I thought my attorney's hefty fee (which was included with my bankruptcy) covered all five years worth of my annoying questions :-)

[lillymarlene]

I might be COMPLETELY wrong... but I thought my attorney's hefty fee (which was included with my bankruptcy) covered all five years worth of my annoying questions :-)

LOL Yeah, I agree that fee should probably cover my nuisance questions.

[wooisme]

Well, I emailed the lawyer on Friday and sent him the attachments telling him to verify he got it. NOTHING! I mailed it to him and he should have gotten it on Monday........NOTHING! I checked pacer...NOTHING! I'm giving it two weeks. if i don't hear from him i'm sending a copy of the letter I sent the lawyer and the two certificates to my trustee!

[lrprn]

Well, I emailed the lawyer on Friday and sent him the attachments telling him to verify he got it. NOTHING! I mailed it to him and he should have gotten it on Monday........NOTHING! I checked pacer...NOTHING! I'm giving it two weeks.

So you send one email and now after four days you plan to wait until a week from tomorrow not doing anything else?

This is the time to be proactive for yourself. Call your lawyer's office directly and ask if your post-filing debtor's education course certificate was received or not. It could be that your lawyer's office firewall or email security settings can only accept files of a certain size or type. Your lawyer might even be on vacation.

Best to find out now the real reason why your lawyer hasn't responded before losing another week. If your time and schedule permit, you can print your certificate out and drop it by the office yourself in person to make certain it arrives safely. Then ask your lawyer's administrator or paralegal when your certificate will be sent to the trustee. Remind them your plan is almost finished so you are nervous about any delays. Then call the office every day until they confirm to you your certificate has been sent or you see it on PACER.

[wooisme]

I swear these people don't care at all unless they are boggled down with so many people filing. He has had to have gotten it cause I also mailed the certificates with a letter to forward this as soon as possible to the trustee and court so the discharge process can proceed but your right i'm going to have to call and I HATE calling this man. I hope I don't have a stroke. I mean this brings back really bad BAD feelings and a place I do not want to go to. ugh

[wooisme]

ok, i took your advice and I called the lawyer's office and got a recording. i left a message saying that i didn't hear back from him about my two certificates and that i was getting concerned because I'm a few payments away from being done with the payment plan and i need to know if this was filed with trustee and court. I had said that if he needed to reach me to call me. I have heard nothing. So I assume they are on vacation. I can't imagine why he would not answer my email with the attachment or not file the certificates that i sent to him in the mail. so i have to assume right now that he is on vacation