I've seen this question asked numerous times on this board but I haven't seen it answered definitively. Can a creditor report late payments during the Chapter 13 repayment plan period? The BK is not discharged yet. I realize they can report late payments that occurred before filing, but I am specifically asking about late payments during the repayment plan for a debt that was included in the BK filing.
A little background. We had a HELOC that was included in our October 2007 BK filing. We are nearly 4.5 years into the 5 year year repayment plan. We have made every payment to the trustee on time (payroll deduction). I pulled my credit report and found that this particular creditor is still showing a balance equal to the balance when we filed (even though they have been receiving payments through the plan for 4.5 years) and they are reporting 33 late payments during the period of the repayment plan. For some reason, they stopped reporting them at some point last year so there are no late payments reported for the last few months. I don't really care about the balance even though they are the only creditor on my report still reporting a balance. I would however, like them to remove the late payments reported after the October 2007 filing.
Other than the fact that it doesn't seem fair, is this a violation of the automatic stay? Is reporting lates during a chapter 13 considered an attempt to collect on a debt? I read somewhere on the board that there may be a legal position paper on this somewhere, does anyone know where I can find it? Is this simply a gray area that isn't well defined?
Thanks in advance!
Starting Score: ~470 preBK(8/2010)