Confirmation and Amending the Chapter 13 Repayment Plan

A Chapter 13 bankruptcy cannot proceed until your repayment plan is confirmed by the bankruptcy judge at a confirmation hearing you must attend. The judge will mainly be concerned about whether you can make the payments under your submitted plan. The judge will also ask, at your confirmation hearing, whether there are any objections by the trustee or creditors. The trustee may object to the plan if deemed infeasible — in other words, if it doesn't seem likely you can make the payments. However, a modified plan can be submitted if the court agrees.

When the judge confirms your plan, the automatic stay ends, but your confirmed plan becomes binding upon all of your creditors, including any who objected to your plan. However, you must file Chapter 13 Plan, or an equivalent local form if your court provides it, with the bankruptcy court clerk and send a notice of the confirmed plan to all of your creditors.

Modifying the Repayment Plan

Section 1323(a) of the Bankruptcy Code gives the debtor an absolute right to amend the plan before the confirmation hearing, but any modification must still conform to the requirements for confirmation. There are several reasons why you may want or need to modify your repayment plan:

to correct errors, such as overlooked creditors or debts;
to reflect material changes, especially changes in income, such as getting or losing a job;
to reflect new terms that you negotiated with a creditor;
to change a previous decision, such as deciding to keep or surrender the collateral for a secured debt;
to borrow money during your bankruptcy, perhaps to buy a new car or to cover an unexpected medical or business expense — plan to pay 100% of such postpetition debts;
to respond to valid objections to your plan;
to remove debts that you have successfully objected to;
to modify your repayment plan to get it confirmed by the bankruptcy judge.

When you propose changes to your repayment plan, you must send a notice to each of your affected creditors, to the creditor's address listed with the bankruptcy court, containing:

your name and last 4 digits of your security number;
the names of any creditors affected by the modification and your account number with the creditor;
your proposed modification.

Amending Your Repayment Plan after the Confirmation Hearing

If the judge does not confirm your plan, then she should allow you to modify your plan so that it can be confirmed, unless the court finds that you acted in bad faith or that it does not seem feasible that you could carry out a confirmable chapter 13 plan. If you acted in bad faith, then the court will seek to dismiss your case. If it does not seem feasible that you can successfully execute a chapter 13 payment plan, then your case will probably be converted to chapter 7, where no repayment is necessary.

Amending a Confirmed Plan

It may become necessary to amend a confirmed plan, if, for instance, you receive money or property after the confirmation, or the judge ruled on a motion after the confirmation that has a material impact on your plan.

A confirmed plan can only be modified with a new notice and a court hearing. The notice must be sent to each of your creditors, and the hearing must be scheduled at least 25 days afterwards so that your creditors can file objections to the modified plan, if they wish.

External Links

Official Bankruptcy Forms
- Means Test Forms
§522. Exemptions - U.S. Code for federal exemptions.
Federal Exemptions - formatted better; also lists states where the federal exemptions can be chosen.
www.legalconsumer.com, created by Albin Renauer, the co-author of How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy by Nolo Press, provides bankruptcy information resources organized by zip code, including exemptions for each state and the federal exemptions, and contact information for the local bankruptcy court in each district.