What Does a Successful Chapter 13 Look Like?

The Happiest Successes Are the Ones That Saved Their Home

Video Transcribed:  Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley here, answering your bankruptcy questions with oklahomacitybankruptcyattorney.pro. Finishing up the series on Oklahoma chapter 13. Just like we did on 11, we looked at who’s a good candidate?

I said, somebody who’s got resources and who’s realistic. What are the powers that help them succeed? The automatic stay, the ability to force a creditor to allow you to catch up on your collateral payments, stop a foreclosure, stop a repossession and the ability to cram down secured debts to the value of the collateral. All those are good powers.

What does a successful case look like? I said in 11’s, you got a lot less successful resolutions than you do in the other chapters. It’s kind of a stair-step 13, you got a lot more than 11, but you got a lot less than a seven. Seven as we’ll talk about, not too hard to be successful.

Chapter 13, you got to keep it up for those five years. You got some things out of your control to contend with, mortgage payment changes as any homeowner knows. It’s usually a result of the insurance on your home changing.

All of a sudden your payment usually is up. Occasionally it can go down, but those hit, and if they’re big enough, they can shake up the terms of a plan. If you’re already at your max of 60 months, that can be trouble.

Again, another COVID benefit, allowed to extend to 72. I don’t think I’ve talked about that much, another advantage, but a successful 13, and I do have quite a few of those out there, you will have either paid 100% of your debts and reorganized your life in such a way that you don’t get in trouble again, or you have discharged a considerable amount of debt, depending on what your payment is. That may be the case.

For most people, the happiest successes are those that got to save their house, keep it out of foreclosure, pay back all the arrearage and get back in good standing because that’s something, nobody likes to lose their house.

A successful 13, if you made it those five years, chances are probably you’ve changed your ways to some extent, as far as whatever got you in trouble in the first place.

If it was in fact, even your fault. Medical bills, unforeseen calamities, these are things that have nothing to do with our behavior or ability to control ourselves.