Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

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What You Think About Chapter 13 Is Dead Wrong

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bankruptcy misunderstanding

The difference between bankruptcy’s Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 is often expressed this way:   

Liquidation: the process of turning assets into cash

Chapter 7 is a liquidation proceeding

Chapter 13 is a repayment plan

 

And therein lies the biggest misconception about Chapter 13: 

13 does not repay everything you owe.

It’s a repayment plan alright, but not necessarily a 100% repayment .

You may not pay much at all, to any creditor.  It depends.

How much you repay

The amount you repay to creditors through your plan is determined by comparing

Rough and dirty, you calculate the number for each of these factors, and your plan must pay the largest of the three tests.  That payment is spread over 3 to 5 years.

Which creditor gets 100%

Bankruptcy law gives special standing for repayment to two common kinds of creditors.

  • Family support (alimony, child support, or other Domestic Support Obligations)
  • Recent income taxes or payroll taxes

These creditors have a priority for payment,  ahead of all other unsecured creditors.  They get paid in full.  The interest that accrues on family support obligations even survives the Chapter 13 discharge.

Therefore, to get court approval of a plan, the plan payments must be sufficient to make these payments, along with any fees of the Chapter 13 trustee and any of your attorneys fees to be paid through the plan.

Unsecured creditors out of luck

The brutal truth is that general unsecured creditors holding medical bills, personal loans, judgments for money, and credit card debt may get nothing in Chapter 13.

That’s because the available money is paid first to priority claims and the costs of administration of the case.  So a debtor with little disposable income may propose a plan that pays only the costs of the plan and the priority creditors.

Chapter 13 makes creditors face reality

The strength of Chapter 13 is that it often forces unsecured creditors to accept that there simply isn’t enough money to pay their claim.

The bankruptcy schedules show it, and the bankruptcy judge enforces it.

It is that coercive effect that makes Chapter 13 so much more effective than debt settlement:  if the numbers support it, the plan can pay them little or nothing.

So, don’t be put off by the phrase “repayment plan”.

Chapter 13 pays creditors only what you can afford, over a limited period of time, in the order of the importance of the debt.

That’s why I love Chapter 13.

More

Debt settlement is a dud

How secured debt can scuttle a Chapter 13

What bankruptcy should cost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 Keys To Keeping Your House: Chapter 13 After You File

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keep the house

Filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy stops the foreclosure.  You’ve protected your home, for the moment.

Bankruptcy gets you a sheltered legal environment to address the problems with your mortgage.

You heave a sigh of relief.

But the fight to keep your house isn’t over, just because there’s a stay.  You’ve just gotten through the first round.

You need to stay on your toes for the balance of the match to emerge with your house safe at the end of your bankruptcy.

Here’s what you need to know.

Mortgage lenders get special consideration

In the bankruptcy context,  the mortgage lender gets privileged treatment.

Anglo Saxon law, from which US law is drawn, has long given particular protection to the claims of property owners.  After all, it was those who owned property who wrote the laws.

The mortgage lender gets that special treatment because the lender’s lien is a property interest in your home.

That lien entitles the lender to regular payments;  if payments aren’t made, the lender can ask for relief from stay to foreclose.

The exception is if the value of the collateral is less than the total of the liens ahead of the lien in question.  Think:  underwater second mortgage.

Follow these 7 keys for keeping your house AND getting a discharge in Chapter 13.

1.  Regular mortgage payments required

Most Chapter 13 plans provide that the trustee pays the arrears on your mortgage, while you make the payments that come due after filing.

Make the payments- that means property taxes and insurance as well.

Too often, homeowners get fixated on paying the arrearages on their mortgage that they overlook, or struggle, with the ongoing payments.

Court are intolerant of borrowers who want the protection of the bankruptcy stay, but don’t take seriously their obligation to pay the monthly payments that come due after filing.

That intolerance spills over into dismissal of  Chapter 13 cases without a discharge when debtors fail to make current payments.

2.  Look for other liens

Chapter 13 isn’t limited to fixing problems with mortgage liens.  Your plan can either avoid altogether or reduce the amount of tax or judgment liens,

Make sure that you check the public record to see if any avoidable liens have attached, unnoticed, to your home.

If you find liens, your plan can cut them down to size.

3.  Pursue modification

Your best bet may be to agree with the lender on a modification of your mortgage.  Nothing in Chapter 13 stops the parties from considering modification.

Northern California bankruptcy judges have decreed that negotiations for a modification do not violate the automatic stay

Frequently, the modified mortgage either folds the arrears into the loan balance, to be paid over the life of the loan. Or, modification designates a portion of the amount owed as not bearing interest, but payable at loan-end or sale.

A modification that cures the arrears may eliminate the mortgage arrears portion of a Chapter 13 monthly payment, thereby increasing the chances of success.

4.  Review the lender’s claim

In order to be paid in a Chapter 13, a creditor must file a proof of claim.  For mortgages secured by the debtor’s principal residence, a detailed attachment is required.

The mortgage attachment must account for payments and charges to the loan from the date of the first, uncured default.

The POC also contains an analysis of any escrowed taxes and insurance, and the adequacy of the monthly payment to pay those expenses.

Dig into these numbers and see if they match your payment records and whether they are otherwise complete.

There’s lots of data there, some of it correct and some woefully wrong.

5.  Keep records of  your payments

Too many mortgage servicers fail the fundamental task of accepting your payments and crediting them properly.

The method of accounting changes with bankruptcy:  payments made after filing are supposed to be credited to a separate accounting for your loan, while the pre bankruptcy record stands alone

Servicers don’t always do that.  Payments sometimes sit for months on someone’s desk, undeposited.

I tell clients to pay with paper checks on their accounts and send the payment by a method that gets you a receipt upon delivery to the servicer.

It’s a hassle, I know, but you end up with a record from your bank that the check was cashed, and you have proof that it was delivered.  The added expense is nothing to the cost of your attorney having to track down the facts showing you paid.

6.  Read payment change notices

If your monthly mortgage payment changes after you file bankruptcy, the servicer must send you a Notice Of Payment Change.

The change may be driven by an interest rate change or a change in the cost of escrowed taxes or insurance.

Even though it comes on a court form, and looks dense, you’ve got to read it and adjust your post filing payments on your mortgage accordingly.

If you’re uncertain, ask your lawyer.

7.  Exploit case-end rules

When you’ve made your last payment to the trustee, bankruptcy rules require a notice to the mortgage servicer about the state of your loan balance.

If the lender claims that either the pre-bankruptcy claim hasn’t been paid in full, OR, that there are unpaid amounts arising after you filed, they must file a reply.

This call-and-response procedure flushes out any difficulties that show in the lender’s books, and provides a mechanism and a judge to sort things out.

The goal is to exit bankruptcy knowing exactly where you stand on the home loan.

Make sure this happens in your case.

If you change your mind

Things change over time.  If you find that keeping the house no longer fits with your financial future, tell your lawyer immediately.

The confirmed Chapter 13 plan obligates you to make the payments you promised as well as obligating your creditors to stand down.

There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, so long as you change your Chapter 13 plan to match.

Far too many debtors recently get to the end of the case and get their cases dismissed, without a discharge, because they stopped paying on the mortgage and didn’t alert their lawyer.

More

Make sure you don’t lose house and discharge

Monitoring your mortgage loan 

Before you list your house for sale

 

How To Keep Your House In Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

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Saving your home ranks high on the list of reasons people file Chapter 13.

The automatic stay stops foreclosures; Chapter 13 gives you time to fix the problem.

Powerful stuff.

But the stay and more time, alone, isn’t enough to save the day if you run afoul of other rules, written and unwritten, about homeownership in Chapter 13.

So, here’s your manual for Keeping Your Home Through Bankruptcy.

Read your Chapter 13 plan

The basic premise of Chapter 13 is that you continue making payments on your home loan during the plan.  Typically, you make the payments that come due after you file, plus catch up on any missed payments via your payments to the Chapter 13 trustee.

In the Bay Area, debtors can choose direct payment or a conduit plan

Every Chapter 13 district does things a little differently  but they all treat post filing payments in one of two ways:

  • either the homeowner makes the payments directly to the mortgage servicer, just as if there were no bankruptcy.
  • or, the on going payments are made to the Chapter 13 trustee, who in turn pays the mortgage servicer. (Those are called conduit payments.)

Make sure you know how it works in your district,  and when your first payment after filing bankruptcy is due.

Keep track of payments you make

Future disputes about whether you made payments directly to the servicer are virtually certain.  Arm yourself with a paper record.

You want your paper trail to be complete and retrievable.  Chances are, the servicer’s records won’t be as good.

I suggest clients pay by personal check (so you get a cancelled check) and transmit that payment by a means that gets you a receipt showing delivery.  With a receipt, you can monitor whether the servicer is promptly crediting your payment, as they are required to do.

Any automatic payments from your bank account or even your ability to pay electronically will undoubtedly be canceled by the servicer.

Compare monthly statements

A new federal rule requires servicers to continue sending you monthly mortgage statements.  That’s a welcome change.

More on the new mortgage statement format

The rule breaks out what is happening with your loan, both as to any pre-bankruptcy default and as to the post-filing payments.

Check out the statements to see if they are consistent, and save them for support in case there’s a dispute in the future.

Watch for payment changes

Your monthly payment on your home loan may change during the Chapter 13.  Escrow amounts for taxes or insurance may change; your loan may have an adjustable rate, or a time-limited interest only feature.

Bankruptcy rule 3002.1 now requires the servicer to give you advance notice of any change in the monthly payment you must make.  If you are in a conduit district, where the trustee makes the on-going payment, ask your attorney how increases in payments are handled.

The rule also requires the servicer to disclose any fees, expenses or charges that it adds to the loan balance during your case.  The disclosure must be made to you, your attorney and the court within 180 days of the expense being incurred.  You have the right to challenge the expense and have a hearing on whether it’s truly owed.

Pay your property taxes

Depending on your loan terms, you may pay property taxes directly to the local taxing authority.  Staying current on property taxes is a condition of being in good standing on your loan.

Know whether your property taxes are escrowed and thus included in your monthly payment, or whether you pay them directly.

If you pay property taxes directly, make it a habit to set aside 1/12th of your annual property taxes when you make your mortgage payment, so you don’t fall behind.

Avoid suffering a motion for relief from stay

The automatic stay is automatic, but it’s not necessarily forever.

If you fail to make required ongoing payments or fail to keep the property insured, the servicer can file a motion asking the court to lift the stay and allow it to foreclose.

More about motions for relief from the stay

Even if you manage to get a deal to cure any defaults, a motion to lift the stay will add to the lender’s attorneys fees, which they will want to collect from you.  And that’s on top of whatever you have to pay your own attorney to protect your property.

Don’t go there:  stay current.

Deduct the mortgage interest you pay

A large part of most mortgage payments is made up of interest on the loan balance.  That interest and any property taxes you pay to the lender are probably tax deductible.  But for reasons I can’t explain, servicers don’t give you a tax form 1098 showing the deductible payments you’ve made or the trustee has made on your behalf.

Follow our how-to on calculating your deduction and assembling the records to support your claimed deduction.  If you don’t do it, you can be sure the IRS won’t do it for you.

Reducing your income tax bill frees up money to make your plan payments.

Heads up and keep your house

This post bankruptcy to-do list isn’t complicated but it is important.  Armed with knowledge of the possible pitfalls, you can head off trouble and sail through Chapter 13.

More

Mistakes that crater Chapter 13 plans

If you can’t make your plan payments

Why discharge gets snatched away at plan’s end

How Chapter 13 Cuts Car Loan Down To Size

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car in bankruptcy

Car lenders who make new car loans with an underwater trade-in will face the music in Chapter 13.

The Supreme Court declined to review a 9th Circuit decision that stripped car loans of their protected specially protected status in bankruptcy; as a result, Californians will continue to benefit from the debtor-friendly decision in Penrod, rising out of a San Francisco bankruptcy case.

The question in Penrod

At issue was whether the prohibition on cramming down the debt on a vehicle purchased within 910 days of a bankruptcy filing protected “negative equity” financed in the car purchase.

“Negative equity” is the debt in excess of the trade in’s value. That left-over debt is added to the total of the new car loan and is unrelated to the value of the purchased vehicle.

And BAPCPA, the bankruptcy “reform” act of 2005 prohibited reducing a secured claim on a vehicle purchased within 910 days of the bankruptcy.  But did it similarly protect that part of the loan that wasn’t really related to the cost of the vehicle purchased?

Penrod facts

In Penrod, the Redwood City resident had traded in a car worth $6,000 on which she owed $13,000.  The new car loan included $7000 necessary to pay off the debt on the trade in.

The legal issue is whether that left over debt should enjoy the projections extended car sellers in BAPCPA for purchase money loans on the debtor’s car.

Every other circuit that addressed the question has given purchase money protection to the entire debt including the negative equity portion of the new loan.

The 9th Circuit held the negative equity was not purchase money as to the current car.  The appeals court remanded the case for the bankruptcy court to figure out how to apportion the payments made before bankruptcy between the purchase money element and the leftover debt element.

It’s surprising to me that SCOTUS didn’t accept cert on Penrod, since there is clearly a split among the circuits and it seems to this California bankruptcy lawyer that the Supremes take great pleasure in overturning the 9th Circuit.

But I’ll take a victory however it presents itself and await a decision on how to calculate what can be trimmed from a debtor’s car loan in bankruptcy.

More

How Chapter 13 thwarts repossession

Keeping your car after Chapter 7

10 ways bankruptcy makes you better off

Image  Snackariah under a Creative Commons license

Chapter 13 Dismissed After All Payments Are Made: Self Inflicted Wounds

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Debtors shoot themselvesThere’s been a rash of bullet-ridden feet lately in Chapter 13 cases.

Debtors seem to whip out their pistols and shoot themselves in the foot with increasing regularity.

Just when their goal of keeping the house was within reach, had they paid attention, they lose it all.

It happens when debtors don’t hold up their end of the bankruptcy bargain.

And at the end of the day, or the end of the plan, they get none of the benefits they sought through bankruptcy.

How does that happen?

Chapter 13 saves houses

The overwhelming majority of Chapter 13 cases in the Bay Area are filed to save a house.

The homeowner needs to catch up on payments, or more frequently, needs a loan modification in order to keep the house.

The Bay Area bankruptcy judges have developed procedures to confirm Chapter 13 plans, and get money flowing out to creditors, while a loan modification is under consideration.  If there is anything we know about loan modifications, it’s that they take time and persistence.

Troubles after the loan modification

One of the provisions of the Chapter 13 plan that the debtor proposes for confirmation by the court addresses how the mortgage lender will be paid while we wait on a loan modification.

The plan might provide that the debtor will make the regular payment, according to the loan terms, directly to the lender in the meantime.

Or, the debtor may propose to make an ongoing payment to the mortgage lender calculated according the the HAMP formula, which says that housing costs should be no more than 31% of a person’s gross income.

So, the HAMP payment to the lender works out to be 31% of monthly income, less property taxes and hazard insurance.

Whichever approach the debtor chooses to deal with the current mortgage payment, it’s set out in the plan, along with the monthly payment the debtor will make to the trustee toward other kinds of debts.

Once a plan is confirmed by the judge, it binds all parties, creditors, trustee and the debtor.  See §1327.

Only some debtors seem to forget their part of this deal.  They don’t make the ongoing payments and don’t modify their plans to match their behavior.

Confirmed plans when loan modification denied

Another variation on our Bay Area plan is the plan provision that says “if I don’t get a loan modification, I will immediately modify the plan or surrender the house”.  I’m paraphrasing the language but the idea is clear:  if I can’t modify the plan, I’ll present an alternative plan to the court.

And then the homeowner doesn’t get a modification, and doesn’t present another plan.

And apparently expects good things to happen despite the failure to live up to his post bankruptcy promises.

Discharge depends on plan performance

The debtor in a Chapter 13 gets a discharge “after completion of all payments under the plan”.  §1328.

The payments “under the plan” include those that the debtor undertook to make directly, rather than through the Chapter 13 trustee.  (In the Northern District of California, we don’t do “conduit plans” where even the post filing mortgage payments are made to the trustee.)

When it comes out that the debtor hasn’t made the on going payments or hasn’t gotten a loan modification, more and more Chapter 13 trustee are recommending that the case be closed without a discharge, since the debtor failed to meet his promises made in bankruptcy.

Ouch!

Candor works

Facing up to a change of heart about a house, or the painful failure to get a loan modification, seems tough at the time.

What debtors seem to be missing is that all the non-house benefits of a bankruptcy discharge are squandered if the Chapter 13 gets closed without discharging those debts.

The other factor that is probably not obvious to the distraught homeowner is that foreclosure does not always follow immediately from the announcement that the debtor elects to surrender the house.

The foreclosure that took forever

Even when we want lenders to foreclose on unwanted property, they don’t.  Or don’t very quickly.

It is not as though the debtor will be immediately homeless if they admit it isn’t working out.

This is my clarion call to debtors:

  • Keep your bankruptcy lawyer in the loop about mortgage payments and loan modifications.
  • Keep a copy of your Chapter 13 plan handy and review what you’ve promised to do in exchange for the protection of the automatic stay and the discharge at the end of the case.

Your lawyer can’t help you if you keep secrets.

More

Roundup of our best advice on keeping your house

 

Protecting Your Co signor When You Can’t Pay

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cosigned loans

Cosigning a loan links you and your cosignor together for the life of the debt.

If you get in financial trouble, your troubles are your co signor’s troubles too.

If you can’t pay your debts, the standard bankruptcy discharge will get rid of your debt, but it doesn’t help your co signor.

Even while you are protected in bankruptcy by the automatic stay, keeping collectors at bay, and by the discharge at the end of the case, anyone who cosigned for you is exposed.

But Chapter 13 isn’t the “standard” bankruptcy.  It has a special protection for people whose debts are co signed.

Automatic stay covers co signors

Unique to Chapter 13, Section 1301 of the Bankruptcy Code extends the protection of the automatic stay to those who are jointly liable with the debtor on consumer debts.

To qualify, the debt must be for a personal or household purpose.  

So a cosigned car loan is covered;

A cosigned business lease is not.

The benefits of the loan must have flowed to the person who filed bankruptcy.  If you co signed a loan made to a friend, your friend isn’t protected by your Chapter 13 stay.

Finally, to keep the stay in place, the Chapter 13 plan must provide for payment in full of the debt.

Co signed debts get preference

Chapter 13 plans are normally required to treat all unsecured, non priority debts the same.  Each of the general unsecured claims gets the same percentage payment through the plan.

But cosigned debts are excepted.  

The debtor can treat the cosigned debt differently and better than other debts.

It’s OK to separately classify a co signed debt and pay it in full, while other debts get little or nothing in Chapter 13.

So your plan can say:   pay 100% of the allowed claim on the joint credit card claim of BIG BANK, and far less to everyone else.

After the plan is over

The only sticky point for the co signor, who is protected from collection on the co signed debt during the plan, is that interest that may accrue on the debt over the life of the plan.

At the end of the plan, the principal on the debt and any interest owed when the case was filed, will have been paid.  But the bankruptcy case doesn’t stop the accrual of interest at the contract rate during the plan.

The cosignor will remain liable for that interest despite the bankruptcy.

Power of Chapter 13

The co debtor stay and the ability to separately classify co signed debts is just another reason why, as a bankruptcy attorney, I love Chapter 13.

Consider

The secrets of successful Chapter 13 plans

Interviewing a bankruptcy lawyer

Wipe out tax penalties in Chapter 13

At Risk of Repossession? How To Keep The Car & Pay Less

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car repossessionIf you are one of the  7 million Americans late on your car payments and living in fear that your car will be repossessed, consider how Chapter 13 bankruptcy can save your wheels.

Losing your car can accelerate a torrent of nasty financial consequences.

No car, no way to work.

No work, no income.

So, what can a Chapter 13 bankruptcy do to put you back on the road?

Stop repossession

All chapters of bankruptcy impose an injunction on creditor efforts to collect debts, or enforce liens, automatically when you file.   That automatic stay applies whether or not the creditor knows about it.

So, file bankruptcy and any collection actions taken without court permission are void and legally ineffective.  If they pick up your car after you’ve filed, you can compel its return.

The only exception to the stay applying automatically is if you’ve had two bankruptcy cases dismissed in the past 12 months.  More on multiple dismissals.

Spread out car payments

Chapter 13 allows you to put forward a plan to restructure your car loan.  The remaining payoff balance on your car loan can be spread over 60 months.

Unless your car loan is very new, or the original term very long, that probably lowers what you pay each month through the plan.

Reduce interest rate

You can adjust the interest rate on a car loan paid through the plan to the current day, market rate.  As I write, that interest rate in California is between 4 and 5%.

This power to lower the interest rate is central to a successful readjustment of a high interest car loan.  It’s of little help if your loan is less that today’s market rate.

But Chapter 13 in the states of the 9th Circuit has another trick up its sleeve.

Strip out loan add ons

Part of a Chapter 13 plan can be cutting the car loan down to the portion of the loan that financed the car itself;  you can knock out any part of the loan that paid off an underwater trade-in, or a service contract, or gap insurance.

The 9th Circuit said in Penrod that these additions to the amount financed were not protected by the 2005 bankruptcy amendments that gave special consideration to car lenders.

So, you can pare down the car loan that has to be repaid to just the amount of the loan balance used to buy the car itself, and not all the extras.

Deal with other debts

You don’t just file bankruptcy on one debt; bankruptcy includes all your debts.

Some may be absolutely dischargeable, perhaps without paying anything on them.

Some liens can be wiped out.  Back payments on home loans can be caught up in Chapter 13.

Chances are that there’s more going on in your financial life than just the trouble with  your car loan.

An experienced bankruptcy lawyer can help you look at the big picture and propose a solution to keep you trucking.

More

Your car in Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Is bankruptcy the right choice for you

Interviewing a bankruptcy lawyer

 

 

 

How One Family Settled Huge Debt For Pennies

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debt settlement
When he started the Chapter 13 trek, he owed $370,000 in personal loans and credit cards.

As he completes his plan, he will have settled that debt for three cents on the dollar.

No tax is due on the forgiven debt and no listed creditor can legally come back to try to collect the difference.

And that’s why I love Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Chapter 13 in the real world

I’ve talked here lots about how Chapter 13 is structured, how plan payments are calculated, and all the nifty things Chapter 13 can do for those with bills they can’t pay.  It’s sometimes dry and dense, but you see how it works.

But here’s how it worked for one real family now completing their plan.

They confirmed a Chapter 13 that resolved their debt for 3% of what they owed when they filed.

They got five years to pay that 3%, interest free.

The payments through their plan cured any pre bankruptcy arrears on their house, in full and without interest or penalty.

They were protected from the taxing authorities while they cured delinquent property taxes.

And in our insane real estate market in the Bay Area, their home appreciated about 50%.  Appreciation that is theirs, rather than their creditors’.

Plan payment driven by asset value

Not all unsecured creditors are as lucky as the creditors in this case, who got something on their claims, even if it was only three cents.

Because the couple had some stock and other assets that weren’t exempt, their plan had to guarantee unsecured creditors a share of the $11,500 value of those non exempt assets.

Based on their income and the infamous means test, general unsecured creditors wouldn’t have gotten anything.

So, the take-away is that just what you have to pay in Chapter 13 is decided by the interaction of the kind of debts you have; the income that the law says is available to pay those debts; and the value of your non exempt assets.

But seen from the top of this mountain, Chapter 13 is powerful.  And the view of life after bankruptcy is stunning.

More

Life after bankruptcy

How Chapter 13 plan payments are calculated

Little known alternative to bankruptcy

 

$7000 Off The Price Of The Car In Chapter 13

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When the client finally got me a copy of the car finance contract, it saved them $7000 on the price of the car.

They’d tried just giving me the monthly statement.

But that statement on the car loan didn’t show the bombshell that I found when I finally examined the contract:

Included in the loan for the new car was the unpaid balance on their old trade in!

In bankruptcy-speak, that’s negative equity, and negative equity isn’t entitled to payment in full in Chapter 13.

So in our Chapter 13 plan, we can reduce what they  pay for the car by the $7000 of the loan that paid off the trade-in.  It really was worth the effort to find the contract.

Sleuthing in bankruptcy

I know, the amount of paper a diligent bankruptcy lawyer wants from you is daunting.

There’s loan documents, deeds, IRA statements, bank balances, insurance policies, pay stubs, and tax returns.

It can seem overwhelming and sometimes pointless.  I get it.

Some of what we’re gathering is defensive:  to show that the information in your bankruptcy schedules is correct.  After all, disclosure is the price of getting a bankruptcy discharge.

But some of the paper we need supports our offense:  having found the portion of the car loan that related to the trade in rather than the new car, we can slice $7000 off of the debt.

Same thing about getting payroll tax returns.  Not everything a small-business employer owes the IRS is a must-pay.  But we’ve got to get the right paper to figure that out.

Just believe that we are asking for documents for a real reason.  Like reducing the loan by $7000.

Car loans in bankruptcy

The auto side of this story is worth the telling, too.  The ability to manipulate car loans is one of the appealing features of Chapter 13.

Only purchase-money:  After the 2005 bankruptcy amendments, car lenders got a windfall on cars purchased in the three years, more or less, before the bankruptcy.  “Reform” entitled car lenders to more than their collateral was worth. (The lenders had a bigger lobbying budget than consumers when the law was passed).

But the 9th Circuit judges have held that the negative-equity part of a car finance transaction isn’t part of the purchase money loan.  Thus we can strip out the  payoff of the trade-in from the loan balance that must be paid.

Likewise, a debtor can reject gap insurance, maintenance contracts and other add-ons that aren’t part of the value of the car itself.

Interest rate changes:  Regardless of when a car loan was made, Chapter 13 can alter the interest rate that the lender gets on the loan through Chapter 13.  So the 10-15% car loan may pay something closer to 4-5% under the Chapter 13 plan.

Term extended:  A Chapter 13 plan can extend the remaining term of a car loan to match the length of the bankruptcy case.  Spread over more months, the monthly bite of a car loan in your budget can be reduced.

And that’s just a part of the reason that I love Chapter 13.

More

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Expert tips on buying a car

Speak fluent bankruptcy

 

Chapter 13: Know Who Gets Paid First Under Your Plan

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The financial road isn't always smooth

Reality exists outside of television shows.

And when real-world reality hits some debtors, it’s a trainwreck.

It comes up for me when Chapter 13 clients and I sit down to write the plan for the case.

The plan will set out which classes of creditors get paid over the five year life of the plan.

Too often, my ever-optimistic client wants to keep all of his assets with secured debts AND pay off the must-pay back support or non dishchargeable taxes.

The Problem

Secured debts are things like car loans, home mortgages , and property taxes.

If you don’t pay a secured debt, the creditor has the right to take the asset that is the collateral.

More on secured debts in bankruptcy

In Chapter 13, you get a choice on secured debts:  you can cure any back payments through the Chapter 13 plan or you can surrender the asset.

If you surrender the collateral, you owe neither the back payments nor the payments that come due after you file bankruptcy.

Priority claims in a Chapter 13 must be paid in full over the life of the plan to get the discharge.

The debtor gets no choice.  Priority claims are usually income taxes and family support.

The zinger is that the Chapter 13 trustee generally pays the secured claims first.

Over optimism

So here’s the dilemma.  It’s hard to decide to give up houses and cars.  You’ve usually got some part of yourself invested in the choice.

Even if the car is a gas guzzler or the house burdened with a bad loan or too little value, it’s tempting to assume you can gut it out. Make up the back payments over five years and have something at the end.

When the collateral is a toy, a boat or bike, or a rental home, you spin yourself messages of entitlement or future appreciation.

You commit in your plan to pay both the secured claims and the priority claims within the five year limit of a chapter 13 plan.

You look at your budget and it works, barely.  You can project enough money to do it all within five years.

Hit a bump

But then, mid plan, life intervenes.  Your work hours are reduced.  The car breaks down.  A family member gets sick.

And all of a sudden, there isn’t enough money to make the plan payments that get you everything.

Worse, what you’ve paid into the plan has gone for things you didn’t have to pay for:  the Harley, the underwater rental, the house that’s too expensive.  The trustee’s order of distribution puts the debts that won’t go away behind the options you chose.

Depending on how significant the loss of income or increased expenses, you may be able to recover.

But maybe not.

Plan for the unexpected

When making choices at the beginning of a Chapter 13, don’t assume that everything in your financial life going forward will be uniformly stable or improving.

Where you will be if there is a major negative event in your life?  Have you taken care of the most important debts first?

Or does the overly optimistic plan you propose have you continuing to live on the financial edge?

Image courtesy of Flickr and  bwats2.

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