I was approved for chapter 13 and filed the motion for lien strip. my car is costing me a fortune in gas and i want to trade it

I suggest you discuss this with your attorney, as there are many options & lots of complications. You will probably need Trustee or court approval to finance the purchase of a new vehicle. if you convert to Chapter 7, your lienstripping order will die, because to lienstrip you have to complete a Chapter 13. In some areas of the US, you can complete a Chapter 7 and then file a Chapter 13 to lienstrip. Informally called a Chapter 20, this strategy may be an option, but some Courts do not permit it. Hope this perspective helps!

You will need to formally modify your plan to reduce the plan payment. You will then need to find a new car and get conditional approval for a loan. Then you can file a motion to sell the old car and borrow to buy the new one. Once the court approves the new loan, you can go ahead with the deal. Finding someone who will lend to you during chapter 13 will be difficult. Your attorney (and you better hire one if you want to deal with all of these complications) may know where you can turn.

You do not provide enough information as to what you want to do if you convert your bankruptcy from a Chapter 13 to a 7. If you are trying to strip a mortgage, this is only done in a Chapter 13 and only under limited circumstances. If you do convert you would have to be current on the house note and car note if you wanted to keep them. If you are only trying to get a more efficient vehicle, you can petition the court for permission to incur debt to buy another vehicle, but all of these things are best done with an attorney.

As the previous attorneys have stated, if you want to keep your home and get rid of that second mortgage, you need to stay in a chapter 13. If you want to trade in your vehicle, your attorney will have to file a motion to sell/transfer property and, if you are going to have to borrow more money to complete the purchase, he or she will have to file a motion to incur debt. Both of these will require specific details of the transaction including where you are trading the car in, how much you are getting for it, the vehicle you are purchasing, and the financing details. You need to be prepared to pay for the new car outside the chaper 13, but your attorney should be able to reduce the amount you are paying into the chapter 13 when your current vehicle is traded in. All in all, a do-able but complicated process which will take well over a month to get done depending on how soon it can be filed. You need to call your attorney's office to sit down with them asap.

Your post tells me that you may have made the dangerous mistake of filing pro se. Don't make a second one and continue to act without a lawyer. Not having one may ruin you financially as you make misstep after misstep. No lawyer can give you a course of action given the myriad of facts you omit here but you have many options and need to decide what will work. You may need to formally modify your plan to reduce the plan payment and seek to get court approval for a new car loan (and to sell the old one). This is difficult but possible in some cases with good lawyers. You may or may not be eligible to convert to a 7. A lawyer can also analyze that.