can I be made responsible for my estranged husband's debt now he cannot work?

InsideInsurance

scrumpymummy wrote: »

The house is in my name, we have one (dormant) joint account. However, we are not yet divorced as he wants to wait until we have been separated 2 years as he believes it will be cheaper.

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The next question will be Am I responsible if he dies? An IFA I know believes I will be as we are married in the eyes of the law.
I know I sound grasping and unsympathetic, but I'm very worried.

Divorce is no cheaper or more expensive when you divorce. After 2 years of being separated you can simply file under a mutual consent rather than having to point fingers as to one or the other doing something wrong, that is all that changes.

If you die before the divorce then you are still married. Debts do not pass from the deceased to the spouse though. As a married couple and assuming there is no will then a couple of items are seen as being outside of the estate and would instantly pass to you. The rest makes up the estate and these would have to be used to satisfy any outstanding debts. If there is insufficient funds in the estate to satisfy the debts then the debt dies with the person. Obviously if any debt is in joint names then the conamed parties continue to be liable.

The only two concerns in the more immediate term I'd have is:

1) If he has fraudulantly taken any loans/ overdrafts in joint names

2) The fact you have a joint account with a provider

Do you or he have any further accounts with the provider of the joint account? Whilst you should be safe from being financially liable you may find they close any other accounts you have with them due to the financial association of the joint account - or at least this is what happened to me when my ex defaulted on her loan in her name and the bank had failed to follow instructions on closing our prior joint account.

lisyloo

But it would be foolish not to take the possibility into account.

Of course.
Obviously the OP is in the best position to judge this, but if the ex is entitled to part of the house then I'm struggling to see what difference 2 years make. Whilst the children need to be housed anything he gets awarded from the house will be on paper only because housing children is always higher priority than grown men liquidising their assets. Am I missing something?

I can see emotional advantages to getting the divorce sorted - the ability to move on.
The only advantage to waiting seems to be the ex's co-operation - it's not entirely clear the reasons for him wanting to delay, so we don't know the full story.

It's possible she may be in a better position as a divorced mother than as a married mother getting no maintenance.
I agree it all needs to be taken into account.

Mojisola

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If you die before the divorce then you are still married.

If you separate but don't divorce, it's really important to get a will written otherwise the estranged spouse will be first in line to inherit.

lisyloo

Vary good point.
Also it may be worth formally expressing your wishes about childcare after your death.

Voyager2002

lisyloo wrote: »

Of course.

I can see emotional advantages to getting the divorce sorted - the ability to move on.
The only advantage to waiting seems to be the ex's co-operation - it's not entirely clear the reasons for him wanting to delay, so we don't know the full story.

Since their discussion has been about HIM divorcing HER, perhaps the key point is that she has not committed any "matrimonial faults". So he could only obtain a 'no-fault' divorce, which would involve waiting for two years. OTOH, since he has left her ("desertion") she could divorce him now. And if she is receiving means-tested benefits she would probably be exempt from court fees: that alone would be a saving of a few hundred pounds.

Mojisola

lisyloo wrote: »

Also it may be worth formally expressing your wishes about childcare after your death.

If the children have a surviving parent, it would be very unusual for the children not to go to that parent.

If his health would leave him not able to care for the children, it would be wise to say who you would like to care for the children. Social Services would be able to over-ride your wishes if they had good reason but will usually let them stand.

scrumpymummy

Wow you are all so amazingly helpful and supportive! I wish I'd consulted you all when he first left us.

In answer to a few queries, the house is entirely mine, mortgage is mine, all on the LR deeds as mine, as he signed it over to me. I will however do the credit checks to make sure there are no nasties I don't know about and close the dormant account. We don't have anything else with that company.

The idea of a DIY divorce terrifies me, is it really possible?

Today's bombshell was a text from his sister to say that she was cancelling all of the DDMs on his bank account and that I was to get anything he was still paying for sorted at my end! Presumably she is doing all of this with his permission and he knows the turmoil it will cause.

I have a few more queries, if you don't mind, or do I need to post elsewhere on the forum?

*There is still a savings endowment which he was on at me to surrender as he wanted the money. He sent me his certified ids and the form dated May this year. I wasn't in any rush, especially as he'sd cancelled his life insurance and I said that if anything happened to him prior to a new policy the children and I needed all of it. However I now want to surrender it as I need the cash too. Will the fact that he signed and dated it in May make any difference do you think?

*There is another joint endowment which is assigned to the mortgage. Can he make me surrender that?

*Assuming his sister doesn't do too bad a hatchet job with cancelling the DDMs I believe he has still been paying his critical illness cover, which of course should now be claimable. Without being too cruel and grasping, should I expect/demand half of that (it was a policy in his name so I'm guessing not), and if not would it be reasonable for me to keep all of the endowment policy I am surrendering - it's worth about a quarter of the critical illness benefit. This CI may well pay off a chunk if not all of his debts.

At the end of the day I have no intention of being unsympathetic, or even of kicking him while he's down. My concern is that there are still the children to support and I am worried.

magpiecottage

scrumpymummy wrote: »

Am I responsible if he dies? An IFA I know believes I will be as we are married in the eyes of the law.

Not one of my clients I hope!

I suspect he is not an Independent Financial Adviser at all as they are normally on the ball.

No you will not inherit his debts if they are purely his. However, if YOU die he will inherit in accordance with your Will or, if you have not made one, the Law of Intestacy, which will give him the first part of your estate and a substantial amount of the rest.

You ought to address this and make sure that it is done in a way that ensures your assets are held in trust for your children until they reach adulthood, making sure that their father is not a trustee.

You should also ensure there is a replacement will when the divorce goes through. Otherwise the Law of Intestacy will apply again and could result in him getting control of the assets you leave to your children.

If you contact a solicitor about getting a divorce they should be able to ensure this is attended to - just ask them.

lisyloo

The idea of a DIY divorce terrifies me, is it really possible?

It's possible but there are potential downsides to not getting advised correctly. i.e. settling for a lower offer from him than you should.
Potentially you could lose more in the settlement than it costs you in legal fees.

There is another joint endowment which is assigned to the mortgage. Can he make me surrender that?

If it's formally assigned to the mortgage then it might not be possible to surrender it. Without wishing to state the obvious it's there to repay the mortgage. It will depend on the exactly what checks are in place but you may well find it cannot be surrendered without the mortgage being paid because it's assigned.to that debt.

My concern is that there are still the children to support

Of course.
But now it's clear there is a little more money in the pot (endowments and critical illness payout) then your best bet is to get advice.
Legal advice is expensive but getting a poor deal could be even more costly.

kjfmuttie

I am very sorry for your situation and rather fell onto this thread as I am in slightly similar situation. I did seek advice from a well respected divorce solicitor recommended to me by a barrister. The solicitor told me (and I am sorry this will not make you feel better) that until you are legally divorced, one can be pursued for debts the other half has run up. This is why, although costly, divorce is the best solution as it protects one legally from financial liabilities of the other. See a solicitor.