If a Chapter 13 plan makes no provision for a mortgage obligation, omits any treatment of the mortgage claims, and prohibits the Trustee from making disbursements toward the claims, the claims are not provided for by the plan and the plan can be confirmed over the objection of the creditor and the trustee; nothing requires a plan to provide for...

NCLC’s Executive Director Rich Dubois and NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson are calling on Congress and federal regulators to take action to prevent an impending foreclosure crisis in communities of color, in an opinion editorial published yesterday in The Hill. The op-ed highlights how the cumulative impact of decades of housing policy discrimination on African American homeownership, coupled with...

Rebecca A. (Becky) Herr was appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the District of Maryland on October 1, 2019 and maintains her offices in Annapolis. Ms. Herr’s appointment came on the heels of the retirement of Chapter 13 Standing Trustee Nancy Spencer-Grigsby. But Herr is no stranger to NACTT, The Academy, and the Chapter 13 Trustee community. So, let’s start...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Limitations period for actions under FDCPA. Construing the statute of limitations for actions against debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Supreme Court held that “absent the application of an equitable doctrine, the statute of limitations in § 1692k(d) begins to run on the date on which the alleged...

By Gretchen Holland, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the Greenville/Spartanburg Division of South Carolina The hanging paragraph of § 1325(a)(9) prevents bifurcation of a PMSI claim if the collateral securing it was purchased within certain time periods prepetition. A 910-day limitation applies to motor vehicles acquired for the debtor’s personal use. A one-year limitation applies to all other PMSI collateral,...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Chapter 7 trustee’s avoidance of post-petition mortgage lien. After filing Chapter 7, the debtor, without prior authority, refinanced property of the estate twice and the trustee sought avoidance of the mortgage lien under § 549. No defense was available because the mortgagee did not qualify as a good faith transferee, having knowledge of...

By James J. Robinson, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Alabama What are the statutory duties of the standing chapter 13 trustee? Bankruptcy Code §§ 1302 and 704 provide the statutory framework for the trustee’s duties, and provide as follows: 11 U.S.C. § 1302. Trustee (a) If the United States trustee appoints an individual under section 586(b) of...

On 8/22/19 the IRSe and its Security Summit partners warned taxpayers and tax professionals about a new IRS impersonation scam campaign spreading nationally on email. Remember: the IRS does not send unsolicited emails and never emails taxpayers about the status of refunds. The IRS detected this new scam as taxpayers began notifying [email protected] about unsolicited emails from IRS imposters. The...