Reply to Help! Need smart VA lawyer (or financial adviser)to help protect my sister from husband's debts

Forum Index » Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)

Reply to "Help! Need smart VA lawyer (or financial adviser)to help protect my sister from husband's debts"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Virginia consumer defense attorney here.  The above posters are wrong.  It is not the case that when two individuals marry, they somehow merge their credit files or their responsibility for unsecured debts that are taken out in only one spouse's name without the knowledge or consent of the other spouse.  (Many LENDERS will not lend to one half of a married couple only, for precisely this reason.  But if he can get a loan in his name only, then it's his loan and not hers.)

I assume that most of these debts are "unsecured open-end credit" (legal speak for credit cards).  Assuming husband wasn't falsely adding wife's name to his accounts without her knowledge, she is simply not on the hook for those debts, as a matter of LIABILITY.

(I am leaving out of this discussion issues around the doctrine of necessaries, because in Virginia, that pretty much only applies to medical debts these days.  I have never seen a card-issuer try to use this doctrine to sue a spouse on the other spouse's credit card debt.)

Liability, however, is different from COLLECTION.  So, to the extent that he is still individually liable, and a judgment is entered against him, the judgment creditor can seek to collect against their marital assets.

The very first thing she needs to do is stop co-mingling assets.  Separate bank accounts, separate investment accounts, separate retirement accounts, etc.

She should also pull her own credit reports, 3x, on annualcreditreport . com and see if there are any accounts there that she does not recognize, if so, she should do ALL THREE of the following: (1) Talk to husband and tell him to pull her off the account; (2) Send a letter to the card-issuer and tell them that she never agreed to open this account and wants off; and (3) send a dispute letter to the CRA's.

Finally, the best thing is to split up their assets as well.  Her car should be in her name only, his car should be in his name only.  Etc.

The house is probably in both of their names, and presumably the mortgage lender will not just let him off the hook for the mortgage/title.  But this is not really a concern.  Card-issuers, etc. when they get a judgment against husband will docket it as a lien against the house -- so that it will be a big problem when she tries to sell -- but they will never foreclose.  To really advise her what to do about the house, though, the #1 question is how much equity is in it.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics