Were you charged extra $$ from atty to file reaffirm with court?

[Martha13]

Hi all...I just received a reaffirmation agreement from my credit union via my attorney's office, even though they had previously sent forms directly to me on which I indicated I WASN'T reaffirming, but would continue to make payments (I also cc'd the atty on this). Today I get this whole thing in the mail telling me to sign it, send it, and oh, for all their work (not) there would be an additional fee of $75 payable to their office. Is this standard? I don't even want to sign it--it says right in there that there is no law requiring a reaffirm be signed, so tell me, what's in it for me???

[WoodSprite]

Hi all...I just received a reaffirmation agreement from my credit union via my attorney's office...Today I get this whole thing in the mail telling me to sign it, send it, and oh, for all their work (not) there would be an additional fee of $75 payable to their office. Is this standard?

Ouch. No, I didn't have any "add-on" charges for anything, including my reaffirmation. My attorney made it pretty clear (when I interrogated him at our first meeting) that the only way I was likely to incur any extra charges was if my case got converted from ch.7 to ch.13, which would certainly be fair.

What he didn't make clear was that his fees included both court costs AND pre-and post-filing counseling, which meant that I was expecting to have to come up with several hundred dollars MORE than it actually cost.

Guess I got a really good one.

[Cali]

I haven't had to reaffirm the truck, but my attorney said should we have to do that it wouldn't be an extra charge.

And our counseling was included in the fee to the attorney.

[kimba251]

I was not charged for the filing but my lawyer said if court wanted an appearance on it there would be a fee. THey did order a court date and there was a fee.

[Flamingo]

It all depends on the firm/attorney and their policy(ies). Were you given a listing of what is covered as to your filing when you retained your attorney? Sometimes when there are additional services that need to be done that are not covered in original fee there could be extra charges. We had to pay extra for a Motion during our Chapter 13 ($400) because it was an additional service not included in our original attorneys fee.

I would come right out and ask your attorney why you need to pay the additional $75 and why it is not included in your fee because this appears to be a standard procedure and should be part of the package. Perhaps it is an office/billing error? I would call and ask - never hurts.

[TEW]

The contract I singed with my lawyer said basic BK and listed what was included.
Motions are not. Foreclosure is not it covers the filing of initial forms the 341. considering my massive debt even is it goes to 3 times the initial fee why would I complain

[epiphany]

Did you sign a contract with your lawyer? Mine clearly states what would constitute additional fees. The original fee was reasonable and I was agreeable to any additional fees as they are not likely to happen. 75 bucks is not unreasonable IMO. Whether or not you want to reaffirm is the bigger hurdle.

I am not, and will not be, in a reaffirmation situation so cannot contirbute any personal experience, but you may want to do some searches here to see if it would be worth your while to reaffirm and whether or not "anything" is in it for you.

Good luck,
ep

[HHM]

Right now, the law office is simply fowarding to you the documents it received from the lender. Ultimately the decision is up to you whether you want to reaffim.

$75 is actually quite reasonable. It does occupy time to process the reaffirmation, etc. And since you are represented by a lawyer, he is putting his name on the dotted line that entering into the reaffirmation is not an undue hardship.