Accidently Missed Mortgage Payment Yesterday...Does this screw us?

[sophieanne]

Hi Danglin,

I don't think you have anything to worry about. When I spoke to my bank when I first started Chapter 13 (i pay my mortgage directly), the bankruptcy contact at the bank told me that when you pay your mortgage on your own, your account is treated no differently then if you were not in bankruptcy. I bravely asked the question of what would happen, if for some horrible reason I missed a payment and made it late one month (after the grace period). I was told that as long as it got caught up not an issue. They said the payment would have to be 3 months late before they would even pursue a foreclosure and of course it would be at that point they would have to go through the trustee to have the automatic stay lifted. And then I understand the trustee would work with you and the bank to give you the opportunity to catch up.

In your case, 2 things MAY happen..1..you will have 1 late payment shown on your record (if you missed paying by the last day of the grace period, they not be able to do anything about that..and 2, you may be charged a late payment fee. That may show up on your next billing statement (if you get one).

Regardless, at this point, just relax, you should be fine. the trustee would not be involved at all at this point.

Happy 2014!

[justbroke]

I would not worry about this, especially if Bank of America "accepted" the payment. It makes no sense to speculate what they may do. They'd need to go into the bankruptcy court and ask for something. What would they ask for? A $20 late fee? It would be a waste of time.

[Danglin]

Basically, we forgot to make our December mortgage payment. We usually make it the last day of the month (and thus, the grace period), but in all that we had going on yesterday, it simply was overlooked. Anyway, we realized this about 4 AM this morning and immediately called Bank of America and made the payment, which will be applied tomorrow (1/2). Our mortgage was not in arrears going into our 13 and we're not serially late making payments. We just messed up this time and wound up making the payment about 4 hours late.

We did contact our attorney, who said not to worry as long as we've paid any late fees. I'm not even sure that Bank of America charges late fees to debtors in a 13, but if they do, will the trustee find out? And if the trustee does get notification, what implication is there to our case?

Is there going to be any issue with Bank of America objecting to our discharge when the time comes? I've heard of lenders doing this, so we're a bit concerned, as we have 2 years, 2 months remaining and can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We'd hate to jeopardize our whole case at this late date.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.