In order to protect debtors from accruing even more debt while they are undergoing Chapter 13 proceedings, Kansas bankruptcy courts have created an amendment to the confirmation order which is used in Chapter 13 cases. This amendment sates that, “No real estate creditor shall ever assess, charge or collect, from either the debtor, or the real estate collateral, any assessments, fees, costs, expenses, or any other monetary amounts, exclusive of the principal, interest, taxes and insurance, that arose from the date of the filing of the bankruptcy petition to the entry of the order of discharge except as may be allowed by court order or an allowed proof of claim.”
Overland Park-based South & Associates, P.C., met with the assistant United States trustee for the region and all three Chapter 13 trustees to discuss their concerns with postpetition fees and stated their intention, along with the trustees, to make an example of servicers who assessed postpetition fees and charges to a debtor’s account without court approval.

In addition to this amendment, a standing order, which may come into effect July 1, was instituted to further outline requirements and protocol servicers must follow in attempting to protect their own interests. This standing order will only affect the servicers ability to collect from the debtor’s main residence and only if the debtor has filed a prepetition default in payments when their case was filed. Some requirements of the standing order are as follows: – Servicers file a proof of claim before the trustee will disburse postpetition conduit payments. – Servicers must notify the trustee, debtor, and debtor’s counsel 60 days prior to the effective date of any change in the postpetition payment amount. – Servicers must notify the trustee, debtor, and debtor’s counsel within 30 days after any postpetition advance, fee, or charge is incurred before that charge is assessed. – Servicers must submit to the trustee, debtor, and debtor’s counsel on or before the 10th day of January of every year during the pendency of debtor’s Chapter 13 a 12-month transaction history of loan. – Servicers must mail the trustee a copy of all correspondence, notices, statements, payment coupons, escrow notices, etc. concerning any change in the payment amount. – Servicers must submit to the trustee, debtor, and debtor’s counsel an escrow analysis of the debtor’s loan within 30 days of the date of debtor’s Chapter 13 petition filing.
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