Legal Question in Bankruptcy in New Jersey

erronious debt amount

I filed for chapter 13 in October of 2004. The bank holding my mortgage for a house in Florida, responded to my attorney that I was behind 3 months. I paid 100% of my debt by August 2005, and the bankruptcy was discharged in October '05. Now the bank says that they made an error, and that I owe still another 3 months. This after cashing the check from the bankruptsy court. While not perfect, the bank's accounting is hurting my credit rating, it is delaying me from concverting from an adjustable to a fixed mtg. (costing me 1-2 points), and holding me back from securing a collateralized loan to rebuild my credit. Oh, this bank also sold the property AFTER they received the chapter 13 filing. Iwas lucky enough to get it reversed.

Is this legal? Do I have any recourse?


Asked on 1/24/06, 5:18 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Corbett Corbett Law Firm LLC

Re: erronious debt amount

There are two things that you should do before a good answer can be given to your question:

1. Check with the Chapter 13 Trustee. You should have the address and a point of contact there because that is where you should have made your payments. Explain the situation and let the Trustee's staff look over the payments that were made for you.

2. Locate the Proof of Claim that the bank filed. The Trustee might have it. Otherwise, it will be in the file with the court.

A lot depends on what you said about the debt in your petition and what the bank might have said when and if it filed a proof of claim. The Chapter 13 Plan that was approved is also significant because the bank had the opportunity to object to the plan when it was filed.

Given that the Chapter 13 Plan was carried out as it was approved by the court, there is a good chance that the bank will have to be satisfied with it even if there was a mistake. I don't think that it would be hard to find law to establish that they can't change their mind now and there may even be penalties if they try.

If you need some help with this, give me a call or send an email. My contact information should be attached to this message.

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Answered on 1/24/06, 10:19 pm


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