You've made your last payment to the Chapter 13 Trustee. Now you want to know how soon is it over? Why does it take so long?
There’s One More Thing You Have to Do
First, you need to file your §1328 Certification.
Have you filed all your taxes and are you up to date on your child support? You need to swear to that. You need to swear you haven't stolen form the bank bailout and some other stuff that never applies.
There's a local form here in Virginia for that certification. (That form is here.) Look for us to send it to you or check with us.
Chapter 13 Trustee Has a Lot to Do
Do you have a mortgage? The trustee notifies the mortgage company that he’s paid them what he was supposed to pay them. Then the mortgage company replies that you are current–or NOT.
(You need to keep track of your mortgage payments while in Chapter 13. the mortgage companies mess that up a lot.)
The Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court sends out of notice that you are due to receive your discharge; but giving creditors 21 days to object. The Clerk does that after the Chapter 13 Trustee signs off. (I've never seen a credit card company object at this stage. I do see it form personal grudge creditors.)
The Chapter Trustee 13 needs to mail out the final payments and wait until all the checks have cleared.
Before the end, the Judge gets to look at the Trustee's final report and see where al the mney went.
Then You Get Your Discharge and the Case Closes
Why does it take so long for your Chapter 13 to discharge and close? The trustee has to make final payments, wait for the checks to clear, and do a final report to the judge.