Married couple, individual debts

justontime

I am sorry to press the point and perhaps I am just being a bit dim, but in what circumstances would a husband or wife be liable for the others debts? I have read in other threads that in some cases they are jointly and severally liable even if the debt is in one name. Also I have read that the bank can take money from or freeze the account of a spouse to recover a debt owed on the other person's bank account or credit card. How can someone protect themselves from this?

Mrs_Ryan

Be careful - I've just had to untangle a messy situation with me and my partner (living together, not married) we both have current accounts with the same bank, (totally separate, not linked in any way, my account preceded OH's) and the bank in their infinite wisdom have decided we are financially linked and I HAD NO IDEA of this until I checked my credit report!!!
OH applied for car finance in January and luckily it didnt effect it - but Im not amused. So it may be a good idea to check credit reports for any inadvertant links (Im not surprised though - this is Santander we're talking about here :mad:)

fatbelly

justontime wrote: »

I have read in other threads that in some cases they are jointly and severally liable even if the debt is in one name.

I can't see how that can be true as it's a contradictory sentence. Liability is either sole or joint.

justontime wrote: »

Also I have read that the bank can take money from or freeze the account of a spouse to recover a debt owed on the other person's bank account or credit card. How can someone protect themselves from this?

OK - two things here. Banks do sometimes try it on, and if there's a sole debt (say loan or credit card) where the contractual payment is not met, they do have the right to take from a joint account. Sometimes they will do this for many months, effectively progressively transforming the debt from sole to joint.

Secondly, banks will sometimes behave totally unreasonably and take from accounts that they have no legal right to access.

The key is to complain strongly and early in both cases, to the bank and then the Financial Ombudsman.

Bloomberg

Ames wrote: »

I have to disagree Britwife, I think this situation shows exactly why it's not good to have joint accounts, it just means that one drags the other one down (credit rating wise) which causes big problems, in this case it would mean a worse mortgage rate when it comes for renewal. Why weaken the partnership further.

An excellent statement