DMP and separation

Maccapacca

Me and my husband have had a DMP for 5 years now - have approx 5 years left before we were debt free. We have decided to separate - fairly mutually. My question is what now happens to our DMP? (its with the CCCS) The debt was originally made up of a mixture of joint debt, and both things in my name and things in his name.
Does it just get split in half and we both have to set up our own DMP's? The two biggest creditors are actually loans taken out in my husbands name only. I have no desire to shaft him but obviously I now have to go it alone and manage financially.
We are not planning to divorce in the forseeable furture but there is no chance we will get back together.
My husband is not particulaly good with money and my earning potential is greater than his - that it if I can figure out childcare so that I can increase my hours to full time. I am currently working 24 hours a week. I am worried that I will have to pay off the bulk of our debt alone!
Any advice would be helpful!

antonic

Any joint debts that you & your have husband have taken out together mean that you are both joint & severally liable for these debts - what dos this mean ?

Provided the repayments are made - nothing BUT if you (or your husband) default then the other partner wil become liable for the whole debt.

You may need to advise Stepchange (was CCCS) that you have split.

Hope this helps.

RAS

Your exs sole debts are his responsibility and your sole debts are yours.

You are both liable for the full amount of the debt that is jointly owned.

You need to talk to Stapchange ASAP.

Maccapacca

Thanks so much for the responses! so let me get this straight. Any debts that are solely in my husbands name I won't be responsible for? In fact most of the debt we owe is taken up with two bank loans in his name. I do have concerns that he may be unable or not very complient in setting up and paying his own DMP :-/ The total of the debts in my name and joint names is not much at all!
So this is more of a moral question I know - but what to do? At the moment the DMP payments come out of his account and I pay half - well he takes it out of the child support he has agreed to pay. We are due for a DMP review in December so I have to tell them then I guess. So in theory I could have my part of the debt paid off much quicker than I ever imagined. But that would leave him with more debt than me.... What to do?! We are reasonably amicable but should I be selfish and take my debts, pay them off and make a fresh start. OR do the "right" thing and make some kind of arrangement to help him pay off his debts? hmmmm he left me after 19 years by the way!

antonic

Thats right !

As RAS said previously

any debts in YOUR name are YOUR responsibility

any debts in HIS name are HIS responsibility

any debts taken out JOINTLY are BOTH of your responsibilites , and if one defaults they will pursue the other for the whole amount.

The moral responsibility for what you do is something for you to wrestle with, I wouldnt dare to comment as a single person.

DS4215

One thing that you might consider before you decide is how he ran up those large debts - money spent on holidays/cars/home improvements for both of you is different to him taking out a loan to cover his gambling debts....

Maccapacca

Yes this is true. One was for home improvements - but surely when our house is eventually sold he will get his share of the equity to compensate for this? Although this is admittidly not in the immeaditate future! The other loan was mostly for tools for his carpentry business - he obviously has taken all these with him.
So what are my options? If I tell Stepchange and the debts are divided up by whos name they are on, I should imagine I will come off a DMP and have to go back to paying interest and negoitiating with my creditors as will owe much less than £5000. He will have to commence a new DMP by himself. If I then have an arrangement to pay him some of my share of his debts - won't that affect his DMP? Or maybe this could be done privately to give him more money to live on? What a minefield! I have no idea how to proceed and with my annual review coming up I do feel pressure to decide ASAP. My ex is working abroad at the moment so can't discuss it with him - Help!

StepChange_James

Maccapacca wrote: »

Me and my husband have had a DMP for 5 years now - have approx 5 years left before we were debt free. We have decided to separate - fairly mutually. My question is what now happens to our DMP? (its with the CCCS) The debt was originally made up of a mixture of joint debt, and both things in my name and things in his name.
Does it just get split in half and we both have to set up our own DMP's? The two biggest creditors are actually loans taken out in my husbands name only. I have no desire to shaft him but obviously I now have to go it alone and manage financially.
We are not planning to divorce in the forseeable furture but there is no chance we will get back together.
My husband is not particulaly good with money and my earning potential is greater than his - that it if I can figure out childcare so that I can increase my hours to full time. I am currently working 24 hours a week. I am worried that I will have to pay off the bulk of our debt alone!
Any advice would be helpful!

Hello,

If you give us a call we'll be able to take you through things. The next step will be to put together a new income and expenditure budget and then we'll be able to look at your options.

We can plan a budget based on your finances at the moment, but I'd recommend that you mention the potential changes you might have (like going full time) so we can take the future into account too.

All the best.

James

Toomuchdebt

Seeing as he's left you I would sort out your own debts, pay what you owe on the joint ones and leave him to it.Being nice and helping him pay off his debts will get you nowhere except into more debt yourself(I speak from experience).Once you've separated his debts just in his name are none of your concern.

Maccapacca

Good point Toomuchdebt! I must admit the lure of being debt free pretty soon is very tempting :-)