Business loan - guarantor

morobe

My husband took out two business loans and I signed the joint guarantee. He then took out another loan with out my knowledge. The company has gone under and Ive just received papers from the bank for the three loans. As guarantor for the company loans should I not have been told a/by my husband (dont say it I know what youre thinking and b/ by the bank. I didnt physically work at the business so I had no knowledge of what was happening until very recently. Any info would be appreciated thanks:(

somethingcorporate

Sounds like your husband may have committed loan fraud.

Do you really want to pursue a legal avenue against your husband?

iolanthe07

I don't see how you can be responsible for the third loan. If it was taken out without your knowledge then presumably your signature must have been forged. If you signed as a joint guarantee for the first two loans, then you are equally responsible for them jointly with your husband. The bank will likely go after both of you, but you are both equally liable for the full amount - this is why the bank asked for a 'guarantee'.

SeanG79

Signatures may not have been forged, sometimes the guarantee is an all encompassing guarantee for all finance agreements current and future. This would normally happen on when the second agreement is done, to avoid having to sign a guarantee on each future agreement, be it loan, asset finance, etc.

If you dont already have in your possession copies of the guarantees that you signed, get copies and read through to see if this is the case, if not, the bank will not be able to hold you liable for the 3rd loan, or its a case of fraud.

chalkie99

morobe wrote: »

My husband took out two business loans and I signed the joint guarantee. He then took out another loan with out my knowledge. The company has gone under and Ive just received papers from the bank for the three loans. As guarantor for the company loans should I not have been told a/by my husband (dont say it I know what youre thinking and b/ by the bank. I didnt physically work at the business so I had no knowledge of what was happening until very recently. Any info would be appreciated thanks:(

Your post isn't entirely clear, particularly as you say in one of your other threads;

i am the borrower and the guarantor on the same loan. company loan by me

In any event, you are liable for the whole amount of the two loans for which you signed a guarantee.

Are you saying that your husband arranged a third loan by forging your signature as guarantor or that he simply took a third loan which did not involve your name?

If the former then it is fraud and you have the unpleasant decision as to whether you want to pursue it as a criminal matter.

If the latter, then you are still responsible for the first two loans and although your husband should, of course, been upfront with you but no, the bank has no responsibility to inform you if you are not part of the company.

On the other hand, that contradicts your quote about being both the borrower and the guarantor.

Janie4Now

OP - you have my entire sympathy with this. Check the documents carefully.....it is quite possible that the Bank simply assumed that you were joint guarantor on the third loan because you had been on the previous two and didn't scrutinise the documents properly. If this is the case then you may have an out though that "out" may include fraud against your husband.

Is the third loan going to make a difference at this stage? What is the final outcome of the company failure going to be?

morobe

Thanks for the replies, no husband didnt forge signature, it was in his name and was witnessed by someone else - think he was just trying to save the company and keep me from worrying! it didnt work - lost the company and still worrying!! have the guarantee so will read it through thank you. The other post was relating to some insurance that was sold with one of the loans, and I couldnt get my head round the wording. That loan was in both our names and we were both guarantors - being a guarantor was an exclusion to the policy and couldnt understand why it was in the paperwork Not wanting to make a claim against anybody -just trying to sort things in my head thank you all for your input