Authorising an Overdraft on a joint account?

atypicalblonde

Hi Everyone

I have posted this on the banking board too, but you guys have such a wealth of knowledge I thought there was no harm putting it on here too!!

My OH has an overdraft debt with his dreaded ex which the HSBC have written to him demanding. We understand that he is joint and severally liable for any debts on the account, but he is adamant that he never authorised an overdraft on the account. We asked the HSBC about this, and they have said that it was authorised in June 2006 - he wasn't even with her anymore then - and that 'a facility letter would have been issued'.

My question is this, can just one party to a joint account authorise an overdraft on the account?

Thanks everyone, any help is appreciated we are kind of at the end of our tether here x

Ali-OK

It depends on the original agreement for signatories - they would have either chosen both must sign/authorise or either of them would sign/authorise. You need to ask your OH what the original agreement was. If its the latter, then yes, the ex could authorise it alone.

Given the situation, would it not be prudent for the account to be closed and his ex have one in their sole name? If there are joint payments coming out, there's no reason why he couldn't set up an SO to the new sole account.

Hope that helps.

Headintheclouds_3

I had this happen to me when I was a student with a joint bills account with my then-partner; when we split up I told him to close the account.

Three years later I amended my address on my sole account and - by luck - this time the bank updated details on the joint account and sent me a statement, which showed that he had not only got an overdraft and a card but - as I discovered a week later when I got a letter saying that the bank were passing the debt to a collection agency - had exceeded the limit by quite some amount and had no intention of paying it back. I wrote to his mother and threatened all sorts of legal action if he didn't sort it out.

So yes, one party is all that's needed to authorise an overdraft. I would definitely get your OH to put some pressure on his ex to pay the debt and to remove his name from that account ASAP.

For what it's worth, the bank (Nat West) were very sympathetic.