Chapter 13 It Won't End

[jtrtet]

According to my attorney, when I finally got his attention, we should have made our last payment the first week of May. Of course the deductions continue. Irs actually owes us a refund as they decided to lower the amount we owed them and the trustee issued a motion for hearing to decide who should get the money, us or the court. This slowed everything down so we called IRS and told them we didn't care who got the money because we were paid out with the bankruptcy court and just wanted this to end. The trustee finally dropped the motion for hearing and our attorney said things should go quickly now, but nothing has happened in a week. Pacer shows no activity and National Data Center still shows active. We are trying to be patient, but two months of payroll deductions that we don't owe are killing us. Our attorney doesn't seem to want to do anything. Should we contact the trustee or just wait it out. These last few months have been almost unbearable because we are so close, but it won't seem to end. Thanks for any advice.

[kiheimer]

Same thing happened to me. I kept paying 5 months after the last of my
debts were paid off. I sent an e-mail to the closing department at the
trustees office and she got the wage deductions stopped. Be patient;
they do things at their own pace. I looked at it as they started me a
nice little savings account.

[kiheimer]

A couple other things I thought of:

Your attorney cant do anything to speed up the trustees office
Phone calls to the trustee did not work- e-mail is the way to go
Almost 3 months to the day after wage deductions stopped
I recieved my discharge Good luck!
Do a search for my post "My never ending chapter 13"

[DUMBAGAIN]

Kiheimer, can I ask what district in Ohio your in? We are also in Ohio with 13 months to go and we are so anxious to get this over with, after christmas we are going to sock every dollar we have into the plan to try to be done in April instead of August, we live in tiny 2 bedroom apt (that we moved into last year to help with expenses) and it is all but killing us to live here....I pray it does not take 3 extras months to close this thing out.

[justbroke]

The problem with wage deductions is this. In almost every District, the debtor (or through their counsel) needs to motion the court to Vacate the Wage Deduction Order! If you sit around waiting for it to magically happen, you'll just be sitting their waiting for nothing to happen. This happened to me and while "some" Trustee offices may end the orders, your attorney should be on top of it. Most employers will not stop the wage deduction without another order of the court. They won't even take a letter from the Trustee... even if the original order reads that the Trustee can authorize the employer to stop the deductions!

[kiheimer]

I'm in the Southern district also

My timeline:
2-3-12 - Wage deductions stopped
3-15-12 - BK case "closed"
5-8-12 - Discharged recieved

My trustee did send the letter. I work for my brother & I saw the letter. My wife works
for a large well known hospital & hers was stopped also. If my attorney sent the
motion I was not aware of it.

[justbroke]

My Trustee's office was "nice" to me when they told me, a pro se debtor, that the debtor (by or through his attorney) should file a Motion to Vacate Wage Deduction Order around 1 month PRIOR to the end of the plan! That way, the Order can be processed in about 30 days and you would get the payments stopped at the end of the Plan.

The typical timeline looks like this...

30-days before end of plan: Motion to Vacate Wage Deduction Order
End of Plan: Notice of Completion of Plan Payments
End of Plan: Motion/Request for Entry of Discharge Order
End of Plan: Certification regarding Domestic Support Obligations
End of Plan: Other local Motions
End of Plan: Order Vacating Wage Deduction Order entered
End of Plan: Chapter 13 Trustee Audit begins
60-Days after end of plan: Order of Discharge entered
60+ Days after end of plan: Trustee final report
60+ Days after end of plan: Case closed.

That's very generic, but is what should happen. There are nuances and differences in Districts. Some district combine the certifications into one certification with a request for the discharge. In any case, I will keep telling debtors to stay on top of the Wage Deduction orders! BKForum is seeing many more concerned posts regarding stopping Wage Deduction Orders and I think these procedural problems could be addressed through the debtors and their attorneys.

[DUMBAGAIN]

thanks for the tips, I'm going to be right on top of this!

[LadyInTheRed]

Kiheimer, can I ask what district in Ohio your in? We are also in Ohio with 13 months to go and we are so anxious to get this over with, after christmas we are going to sock every dollar we have into the plan to try to be done in April instead of August, we live in tiny 2 bedroom apt (that we moved into last year to help with expenses) and it is all but killing us to live here....I pray it does not take 3 extras months to close this thing out.

I see in another post that you are paying 100% of unsecured claims which is why you can finish your plan early. I just want to point that out for anyone who reads this, isn't paying 100% to unsecured creditors and thinks they can get out of their plan early by making extra payments.

[DUMBAGAIN]

good call out! Thanks

[jtrtet]

The problem with wage deductions is this. In almost every District, the debtor (or through their counsel) needs to motion the court to Vacate the Wage Deduction Order! If you sit around waiting for it to magically happen, you'll just be sitting their waiting for nothing to happen. This happened to me and while "some" Trustee offices may end the orders, your attorney should be on top of it. Most employers will not stop the wage deduction without another order of the court. They won't even take a letter from the Trustee... even if the original order reads that the Trustee can authorize the employer to stop the deductions!

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think that I will try to email the trustee since dealing with my attorney isn't getting me anywhere. He says that the trustee will automatically stop the deduction when the balance reaches zero, but then tells me we paid out in early May. The only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that it will end.