Expert: Terry Leeders - 4/29/2009

Question
I filed chapter 13 in 2007 and now am thinking of filing a chapter 7 and letting everything go except for my car.  With my chapter 13 I kept my house, car, and appliances that I had loans on.  My chapter 13 lawyer says if I file a chapter 7 there is a chance I could lose my car.  Is this true or is he wanting me to stay in a chapter 13 so I still have to pay him all his fees?  Is has already told me what he could get my paymnet down to with just keeping my car.  Any help

Answer
If you convert, you will need to catch up on the car payments (they were paid on a different rate than your contract was) otherwise you need to make arrangements with them to either rewrite the note with the reaffirmation to defer any default, or other agreement.  Otherwise, if you are behind, and cannot catch up, they can move to modify the automatic stay then repossess the car.