Post Chapter 13... Mortgage Problems

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:04:30 GMT

My chapter 13 was discharged 2/2011. According to my trustee, I should have began making mortgage payments for my March 2011 payments. However, my mortgage company advised me that the last payment my trustee sent was for 01/2011.

I contacted my mortgage company and requested an audit of my payment history. They advised me that my trustee failed to pay mortgage back in Feb and March of 2009. So every payment they received thereafter was being applied to previous months. This would explain why when the trustee sent my supposedly Feb 2011 payment it was applied to Jan 2011 payment. Now, I'm coming out of bankruptcy two months behind.

I'm frustrated because according to my attorney prior to my chapter 13 being discharged the court set a hearing with my mortgage company to verify that everything was updated. I don't know if my mortgage company showed or not but the court sent me a letter saying that everyting was fine therefore they could proceed with discharging me.

My attorney advised me to send my mortgage company that letter that the court issued saying my mortgage payments were current. I need to know what is my recourse? I'm tired of dealing with it and it's stressing my out. Should I worry about it anyway since my mortgage company is considering an "in-house" modification?

Can someone please advise. Thanks!

Re: Post Chapter 13... Mortgage Problems

Anonymous — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:27:22 GMT

Hi survivor!

First, congratulations! Most folks do not complete their CH 13's - you have done a superb job getting through a very very tough program.

My knee-jerk response to your post was - Wow. Deja-vu all over again.

While some of the details are a little different, we wound up in a very similar situation. Somewhere about six months before our last scheduled BK payment, we found that we were behind on our regularly paid mortgage by about a month - and it also involved some fees. We had to be super-vigilent to even detect this. We could not check our account online during the BK (the mortgage company's policy locked us out during the entire BK and until it was discharged - absolutely drove me crazy). The paper statements the mortgage company sent us made no sense, and when we called them for information they were absolutely clueless. At any rate, we paid our mortgage every month before what appeared to be our due date.

Because it was such a royal mess, and after a handful of nonsensical nonhelpful phone conversations (and a few silly statements they mailed to us in response to our questions), we asked for a thorough review from the mortgage company after the discharge. We did have to pay an additional month, which we had a little time to prepare for (fortunately - absolutely just good luck that we learned about the problem on our own). But the fees were enormous - equivalent to yet another month's payment. When the mortgage company was done with their review, they removed any negative comments from the mortgage from our CR's, but we were not happy with them. In fact, we refinanced as soon as possible (six months after the discharge) and it still makes me crazy just thinking about them. At the time, I felt like someone had punched me. We had worked so hard and it didn't seem fair. And it wasn't, in fact, fair at all.

So, I guess my advice is to thoroughly question it, get it reviewed, send the documentation, pay what you must and pay it quickly, and move forward. You've survived the BK itself, this is just one more thing to work through.

When your mortgage company does an in-house modification, do the numbers still work out right? Have they credited you all the money the trustee sent in? Does the trustee's list actually verify the missed payments the mortgage company claims were missed?

And, are you able to make two payments this month? Here's the tough part - a late after a BK is very hard on the rebuilding efforts and on your FICO. Is there any way you can avoid having this report as a new late? I would stay cool, calm and collected and focused on getting it all straightened out. In the end, if you must pay (as we did) get 'er done and move on to a wonderful post-BK life. I wish you the very very best.

And congrats again on completing the CH 13 to discharge!

topic Post Chapter 13... Mortgage Problems in Bankruptcy

Post Chapter 13... Mortgage Problems

Re: Post Chapter 13... Mortgage Problems