Chapter 13 - Still Waiting For Discharge

[shanihw]

I made my final payment early November 2020 and still haven't received discharge yet.  Called my attorney and he told me to call the trustee.  Called the trustee and was told it's waiting for final audit.  Did somebody drop the ball?

How long after final payment should it take to receive a discharge?

[Horseshoez]

My understanding is, "it depends"; that said, my Discharge came through exactly four weeks after my last payment.  As for "the final audit", if I recall correctly, that has more to do with the final Closure of the case than it does with the Discharge.

Did you file pro-se, or did you use an attorney?  If the latter, what does your attorney say on the matter?

[Anonymous]

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@shanihw wrote:

How long after final payment should it take to receive a discharge?

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It can take anywhere from weeks to months. In my case, it took almost 6 months after the last payment. I never called the trustee directly, as I didn't want to annoy them. I called my attorney every week (but asked nicely each time) once it got to 5 months. It was some kind of accounting/paperwork hold up. It can take a while. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hello - I had also made my last payment in November and received discharge in the last week of February. I waited till mid-January and was getting impatient with the process as every time I'd call my attorney office, they'd ask me to wait. Then I went onto the National Data Center website and pulled my payment information and found that the trustee's office had issued the last thirteen checks to the creditors in the first week of January. Until those checks are cleared, trustee's office cannot complete the audit report and send it to the court for discharge. Your attorney's office will not call those creditors to find if and when those checks will be cleared. I called up Trustee's office to find how many of the thirteen checks were still to be cashed and I found it was five of them. I googled the general contact numbers of those creditors and asked for the bankruptcy department contact. Through multiple calls, I was able to get numbers for those creditors and followed up for the next three weeks. The last check was cashed around Feb 18th and since I had established some rapport with the individual at Trustee's office, she sent the audit report to the court the same business day, the account reconciliation report was sent over. The court issued the discharge in the next 24 hours. 

You can sit, wait and pray that the checks get cashed soon or pick up the phone to find where are the checks. There is a catch in this process, if your check is lost by the creditor, the trustee's office will wait for 90 days from the date of the last check issued to submit final report to the court. After 90 days, trustee's office will deposit the checks in the court and the creditor will have to collect the checks from the court. In addition to trustee's office submitting the check in the court, they will also submit the final report so that you can receive the discharge and you do not have to wait forever.

It's an elaborate response but I hope this gives you some hope.

[shanihw]

I filed with an attorney and he basically told me to contact the trustee directly. 

[shanihw]

Okay guess I started to think my file fell down the rabbit hole and I've heard people say 1-2 months. Thank you!

[shanihw]

@Anonymous  Thank you so much for this response! Gave great insight on the process which I was clueless. My attorney has been totally hands off with follow up.  I have the list from NDC and will confirm if there are any outstanding checks and follow up. I can't afford to wait any longer. 

[Anonymous]

Good luck!

[FLLGuy]

@Anonymous 

We're in South Florida and submitted final 5yr payment to BK 13 in June 2021.  Greatly value your post/reply here you helped answer some of my question(s).  I recently posted a new topic "How much time lapsed from last payment to discharge?" (didn't mean to hijack)

• June 2021 - final payment
• July 6th - completed LF 97 (Debtor’s Certificate of Compliance, Motion for Issuance of Discharge and Notice of Deadline to Object)
  • Attorney/Paralegal told me to wait about 30 day for the Issuance of the Order or Discharge. 
• July 19th - Called Trustee's on status then informed checks sent for 32 creditors but only one cleared w/31 more to go.
  • Summarizing here - NO Discharge until all 31 checks clear......uggggh! 
  • Stressful depending on 31 checks to clear before Discharge is granted.

Now I personally know the feeling of others who posted "Anxious waiting between last payment till discharge".  But in the end, what's a few more months compared to 5yrs?,.....right?

[coreyb80]

My last payment is in September and I'm definitely not looking forward to this process.