Am I liable for Ex'es Debt

finnan89

Hi All, 

Not sure if this is the right place for this post, apologies if it isn't. 

I split from my wife several years ago she moved out and I still live in the property we shared, but recently I've been getting increasing amounts of post from a bank addressed to her. Whenever I get them I pass them on to her as we have kids who we co-parent.

My concern is that she's not updating her bank details and may be running up debts. She's also changed her mobile phone/email address in recent years. So if she is racking up bills the bank would have no way of contacting her if she's simply choosing to ignore the letters I pass on (which as they're now arriving more frequently would appear to be the case).

I'm just concerned that I'll have a debt collection agency knocking on my door out of the blue one day demanding money from me (which I'm presuming they can't do?) Should I be doing something to ensure the bank have her correct details if she's refusing to update them?

Any advice would be appreciated. 

comeandgo

Next letter write on it not known at this address and pop it in the nearest letterbox.

DullGreyGuy

Are you divorced yet? 

Just cross out the address, write "Return To Sender, Addressee Gone Away" on the front and stick it back into a postbox. It will trigger the banks tracing service after a while. 

theoretica

Do you and she together own the property you live in?  If so, is it tenants in common or joint tenants?  Does she own any of the furnishings or stuff in the house and if it is all yours can you prove it?

finnan89

Divorce is currently going through, and as part of this there will be a clean break order. I know there'll need to be a discussion on finances somewhere to get to that point, but given I've been left with a lot more debt and neither of us have any real assets I would be surprised if she tried to say I should pay any debts she's racked up.

My main concern is having debt collectors knocking on my door, as I feel she might be deliberately not updating her details with them so she can't be located. 

finnan89

theoretica said:

Do you and she together own the property you live in?  If so, is it tenants in common or joint tenants?  Does she own any of the furnishings or stuff in the house and if it is all yours can you prove it?

The property is rented not owned, and we split furniture when she moved out several years ago. 

RAS

The only things that are likely to result in "debt collectors" are fines and CT debts, neither of which come from banks.

Consumer debt collectors gave the same rights of entry as next door's budgie. Just tell them to go away. 

Do you have any joint debts?

thegreenone

A large envelope, containing the letters back to the sender, with a note to try her new address.  Yes, you'll have to pay postage but hopefully not for long!

sevenhills

Just open one of the letters, you are still married. Do you trust her not to get more debt?

finnan89

In response to a couple of points above there's no joint debts. We both only ever had credit cards etc. in our own individual names. Foolishly when she racked up debt I'd switch it onto one of mine when I'd have a 0% deal to save money - At the time I had the approach of us jointly managing finances so if I could get us a better rate on one of my accounts I'd shift debt to that. Should have had both of our names on the accounts - but that's a lesson I've learnt the hard way. 

Secondly am I concerned about her racking up more debts? Yes. I used to be a bit of a financial backstop. She'd rack up store card debt and I'd bail her out. Since the split it's been tough but I can just about balance the books. I have significant debt from the relationship still but I'm chipping away at it. I just want to ensure any problems she might be creating her end now don't come back to bite me. 

sevenhills

finnan89 said:

Since the split it's been tough but I can just about balance the books. I have significant debt from the relationship still but I'm chipping away at it. I just want to ensure any problems she might be creating her end now don't come back to bite me.

But you haven't made the final split yet, so her debt is still partly your debt. Is that how it works?