From the Editor – Chapter 13 Issues

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Disposable Income: Payments on stripped mortgage were part of projected disposable income. Notwithstanding § 707(b)(2)(A)(iii)(I)’s deduction for “amounts scheduled as contractually due to secured creditors,” the debtors were not permitted to deduct payments on a junior mortgage that was being stripped in the plan. Under Hamilton v. Lanning, the stripping’s result in elimination of secured claim was a “known or virtually certain” change in deductible payments. In re Garrepy, 501 B.R. 13 (Bankr. D. Mass. 2013).

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