§1229 Modification of Plan After Confirmation

Summary

After a repayment plan is approved but before it is fully paid, the debtor, the trustee, or someone owed an allowed unsecured debt can ask the court to change the plan. Changes can adjust payments for a class of claims, shorten or lengthen the payment time, change what a creditor gets if they were paid outside the plan, or add a new post-petition claim described in the law. The changed plan must follow the same plan rules as before and becomes the plan unless a court rejects it after notice and a hearing. Payments generally cannot run more than 3 years from the first payment due unless the court allows more for cause, and never more than 5 years. A change cannot raise payments already due before it takes effect. Only the debtor—not others—can increase monthly payments based on higher disposable income if that would push payments above that income, and only the debtor can increase payments in the plan’s last year if doing so would leave too little money to keep operating the farm after the plan ends.