9th Cir. BAP Says No Credit Reporting Problems for Reporting During Pendency of Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

In In re Keller, BAP No. EC–16–1152–BJuTa, Bk. No. 12–22391, 2017 WL 2312849  (9th Cir. BAP May 26, 2017), the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit BAP held that a creditor did not violate the automatic stay or the order confirming the debtor’s Chapter 13 plan by reporting a debt to a credit reporting agency as overdue or delinquent during the pendency of  the bankruptcy and before the debtor eventually cured the delinquency by payments outside the plan.  Reporting deliquency or overdue status of the debt is not a per se violation of the automatic stay which forbids collection on the debt, not reporting regarding it.  The BAP held that negative credit reporting is not a collection activity for purposes of 11 USC 362, 524 or 1301.  Also, the debtor’s Chapter 13 plan said nothing about credit reporting, but merely required the creditor to apply payments it received from the Chapter 13 trustee under the plan toward the debt as if the debt were current on the date the bankruptcy was filed.  That provision did not require the creditor to report the debt as current.