What are the requirements to file chapter 13 bankruptcy? 22 Answers as of January 20, 2012

Generally, you will have to pay into a monthly pay plan for 3-5 years.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy requires that one be a "wage earner" or have some steady source of income from which a repayment of debts, in whole or in part, can be made.

If you want to file Ch 13 to get discharge, must not have filed a Ch 7 within last four years. Other than that, you need to have a regular income and be able to make plan payments. Don't even think of trying to do a 13 without an attorney.

It's a lot of work. First you need to find out your monthly payment amount. This depends on many things, for example whether you're curing any arrears in order to save your real property, whether there is a second mortgage or credit line you're trying to strip, or if you want to cram down the first mortgage of an investment property (not your homestead, cram down for homestead is specifically prohibited by the bankruptcy code), what's the amount of your exemption and how much you're taking, what's your disposable income (income - allowed expenses. If you do not exceed your exemption limit, or if the aggregate of the disposable income x duration of commitment is greater than the excess of exemption, then you will need to pay in all your disposable income as monthly payment), etc. Then you need to find out the length of your commitment period. If your household income is above median, you have no choice but to takr 60. If it's below, you can choose. For the amount of work you'll be doing, you might as well hire an attorney. Most will only charge 1/3 upfront, you can pay the rest in your bankruptcy plan. Besides, if your disposable income is high, it does not matter how much you need to pay your attorney, the number won't change and it will only go to your unsecured creditors. For example, if you agreed to pay your attorney 3,500, and you only pay him/her 500 before filing, you owe him/her 3000, payable through the plan. Let's say your commitment period is 60 months, 3000/60=50, $50 of your monthly payment will go to your attorney. Let's say your disposable income is 200 monthly, this payment will be paid to: the trustee $20, your attorney $50, and the rest $130 will go to your unsecured creditors. If you agree to pay your attorney more, the $200 won't change, your payment will only adjust between how much is going to your attorney and how much is going to the unsecured creditors. Therefore, you might as well hire an attorney.

A chapter 13 is a repayment plan of all or some of your debts. The only requirements for chapter 13 is that you have consistent cash flow for the repayment plan. The amount you pay and the length of time that you pay depends on your income. The long and short of it is that a chapter 13 is based on your income.

To file chapter 13, you must be able to provide the past 6 months of your income, your past 2 years of tax returns, and have sufficient funds to pay your proposed chapter 13 plan. You must file the bankruptcy petition, a certificate of completion of an approved credit counseling course, and your proposed payment plan. The plan must pay certain creditors in full (generally specific secured creditors), while others can receive little to nothing (credit cards, medical bills).

You are required to tell the truth and give full disclosure of your financial affairs and a plan of repayment.

The first requirement is to find a qualified Chapter 13 attorney. If you embark without one, your chances of success are "almost nil," according to a local bankruptcy judge. In the meantime, you should be gathering your last six months of paystubs, your last two years of tax returns and take the first of two counseling courses required under the recent amendments to the bankruptcy code.

A Chapter 13 is also considered the "wage earners" plan. This chapter requires repayment of a certain percentage of your debt back to the creditors through a payment plan to the trustee. In order to qualify you need to be able to prove to the court that you have significant income in order to fund the repayment plan for the time period it will go

You must be an individual or married couple with a regular source of income that is sufficient to meet your living expenses and make a debt consolidation payment. In order to receive a discharge in the Chapter 13 case, you cannot have received a discharge in a Chapter 7 case filed within the past four years or a previous Chapter 13 filed within the past two years.