Who owes money to mum

Susan_Frost

Has anyone any thoughts on the following.

Husband and wife borrow £3000 from wife's mum to buy a car.

They divorce 2 years later. The money had not been paid back to wife's mum.

Divorce and financial settlement go through court, where husband takes the car as part of his share, presumeably at the value of the car 2 years on.

Wife did not raise the issue of her mum being owed the money at the time of the court hearing.

Morally, and legally, who owes mum the money.

amandada

not easy one! Presumably there was nothing said or put into writing formally, but if the car was taken into account as part of the husband's settlement and the wife doesn't raise the issue of the money owing, I'd say it'd be the wife who should make payment.

Based on nothing but a gut instinct!

Kandipandi

I think this should have been agreed before now, it should have been part of the financial settlement.
Morally, he is more liable for the debt than her as he has the car, but presumably they both had use of it between buying the car/borrowing the money and splitting up. Perhaps wife liable for a portion of it and husband liable for majority of it depending on timescales etc.

However, it is a family loan and with nothing in writing is not enforceable, so it is the wife's responsibility to pay the mum as it is her mum and she was loaning the money to both of them, he would not have been given the money had he not been with the wife.

As I saidiIts a bit late in the day to be honest, this should have been agreed earlier, but morally the mum is out of pocket and the wife will have to cough up and try to get some mercy from the ex husband to help pay.

Lunar_Eclipse

Morally they are both responsible since they both took the loan. Since the divorce was two years after the loan, I would say they are both jointly liable. Since he has the car which is presumably worth some money, the payments should be adjusted to take account of this fact (ie he effectively pays more back), unless it has already been taken into account when dividing their assets (in which case they both pay half.)

Legally I have no idea. Without a written agreement, I suspect no-one is legally liable to repay anything.

madnessandmayhem

Just an initial thought but i would imagine that if the husband had the car then the wife would have had something of similar value?? I would say that perhaps morally it should be a joint 'debt' but as amandada says, the issue of the money was not raise at the time so I would imagine it would be the wife who would end up having to pay it back.
Just my opinion though!

Debt_Free_Chick

Morally, I think you have to go back to what you both intended before the divorce. If you intended that the money would be paid back from joint funds, then the debt is joint - but that would then suggest that the car was jointly owned too.

Legally, had this been raised at the time of the financial settlement, it would have been considered a joint car and a joint debt, in the absence of anything to the contrary.

IMHO

Marcheline

I think the wife would owe the mother money in this situation. If the matter was not raised as part of the divorce, then it wasn't deemed an issue, so I'd not be chasing the ex-husband for the money. It would reek to me of desperation. In these circs, I'd pay my mother back myself.

*Louise*

In those two years - was no effort made to pay some of the money back? Why is the debt still at 3k?

Personally I think the car should ideally have been sold to pay back some of the debt and not counted as part of the divorce, but I would now 'morally' say they are both liable. Assuming they split everything equally, which implies (as someone previously said) that the wife would have had something of equal value.

DVardysShadow

Car has been included in settlement between exH and exW, so the exCouple are now square. Mother is down by £3000, which the couple both owe as part of their responsibilities not to inflict their woes on everyone else. Equal shares.

Money_maker

Morally they owe 50% each.

MrsTinks

Morally each owes 50% - legally unfortunately they owe nothing... unless there is a written agreement in place they both signed to say they would pay back the loan?

Never lend or borrow money to or from family or friends unless you can afford to loose the money AND the friendship...