Liabily of Debt

ravenk

I have a friend who finds himself in the following situation.

He is married and has left his wife.
Works and has always worked. Earns slightly above average salary (UK).

His wife does not work and is on incapacity benefit.
She has never worked during the 6 years they have been married.
He has recently split up with her (Well last July - 2007).
When he left he discovered they had joint credit card debts of £15K and he has taken a bank loan and paid these off. He is now card free and pays cash for everything.
However he has now found out she had taken out cards in her name that he did not know about. Some while they were together and others since they have split. She owes a further £16K ....He did not benefit from spending on these cards.
He has a letter from her solicitor saying she has defaulted on payment on these cards and would he volunteer to pay some of the debt off. If he does not volunteer , it will go to court and he will have to pay anyway.

Question ....Are you liable for your wifes debts, even if you have no knowledge of the debt she has undertaken while you were with her. Also after you have split.
He used to work away from home during the week. So it was easy for her to hide the debt from him. The cards were taken out by her in her name only.
She spent the money on her grandchildren from her first marriage.
He was her second marriage. They have no children.

Better check my wifes handbag ....


Some people have a complicated life...

Thanks
In advance

UK007BullDog

bump.....

If the cards were taken out just in her name I would assume she is solely liable. Maybe he needs to get some advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Hope someone can answer this for you.

ravenk

I have suggested he talks to his local CAB.
He also has a solicitor dealing with the divorce. I have told him to keep in the loop at all times. However he keeps saying he wants to keep the costs down. I have told him that would be a false economy.

daveboy

If the debt is in her name then it is her who will be taken to the cleaners if she can't pay.

I used to live with my Mum after I turned 18 - does that make me liable for her debts? Same sort of thing really. Of course it doesn't make me liable.

The 'wife' signed the credit agreement, therefore it is only her who is responsible...whoever said he would have to pay is talking from their rear end.

If she is on IB and has racked up that much debt, she will be saying hello to bankruptcy I would think. Under no circumstances should he feel sorry for this woman and give her money.

I sincerely hope that, if the facts given are accurate, this woman really regrets attempting to live off your friend. It's funny how some people aren't working but can still get off their backside to rack up ridiculous debts.

IB of what I'm assuming would be £72.55 a week (or £81.35 if over a year) won't touch the debt if she's having to pay for other living costs.

Your friend shouldn't worry, if this was me I'd enjoy watching her sink like the Titanic as she's brought it all on herself by the sounds of it.

ravenk

daveboy wrote: »

If the debt is in her name then it is her who will be taken to the cleaners if she can't pay.

I used to live with my Mum after I turned 18 - does that make me liable for her debts? Same sort of thing really. Of course it doesn't make me liable.

The 'wife' signed the credit agreement, therefore it is only her who is responsible...whoever said he would have to pay is talking from their rear end.

If she is on IB and has racked up that much debt, she will be saying hello to bankruptcy I would think. Under no circumstances should he feel sorry for this woman and give her money.

I sincerely hope that, if the facts given are accurate, this woman really regrets attempting to live off your friend. It's funny how some people aren't working but can still get off their backside to rack up ridiculous debts.

IB of what I'm assuming would be £72.55 a week (or £81.35 if over a year) won't touch the debt if she's having to pay for other living costs.

Your friend shouldn't worry, if this was me I'd enjoy watching her sink like the Titanic as she's brought it all on herself by the sounds of it.

It was never any of my business at the time. But he was just a meal ticket when she married him. I kept my lips zipped. But I could see it 7 years before he saw the light. Weird how much control she had on him. He worked away from home for the extra money....she was all for it. Just home at weekends !

The facts are correct.
I was however told you were liable for your wifes debts if she did not work ?
A family member told me that.
But I could not understand how this would be true. If you did not sign anything or card was not in your name.
I think her solicitor is just chancing his arm. Yes he is right it will go to court in the end. But she will end up paying. The cards she has racked up debt on are :
Mothercare
Adams (Kids cloths ?) - Not sure what card this is
Debenhams
Monument card - Never heard of this one...
And some others he said.

She has been on sick benefit , due to a bad back , for the last 10 years.
Still able to drive a car and care for her 8 grandchildren all under the age of 8. Makes you think.....Once again I just kept quiet on this subject.
:rolleyes:

missile

AFAIK, a husband / wife is jointly liable for any debt a spouse may incur, irrespective of whether they know about it. If spouse has no assets then they will pursue the partner. Your friend needs to see a solicitor soonest!

for better or worse?

daveboy

ravenk wrote: »

She has been on sick benefit , due to a bad back , for the last 10 years. Still able to drive a car and care for her 8 grandchildren all under the age of 8. Makes you think.....Once again I just kept quiet on this subject.
:rolleyes:

If that is the case then I'd be contacting the benefit fraud hotline and let them investigate as to whether she is pulling a fast one (I accept she may not be).

The cards you detailed are actually store cards rather than credit cards. I would have expected that the agreements that were signed would be, by and large, very similar to the agreement you would see for a credit card. There wouldn't be any sort of term in them that would make your friend liable for the money borrowed.

If someone is not working, their partner doesn't become liable for the debt. The agreement is between who signed it, and the lender. The lender may 'sell the debt on' to a debt collection company (it sounds like it's gone past that stage) - that is the only third party involved. Your friend has no involvement whatsoever, and if the solicitor is trying it on, he/she shouldn't be in the profession as what they are trying is ludicrous - the good thing is she'll get ripped to pieces in court with that sort of representation!

YorkshireBoy

missile wrote: »

AFAIK, a husband / wife is jointly liable for any debt a spouse may incur, irrespective of whether they know about it. If spouse has no assets then they will pursue the partner.

But credit/store card debt is unsecured debt and, unlike current accounts, loans, and mortgages, does not carry 'joint and several' liability.

JohalaReewi

The debt is in the wife's sole name so she is liable not the husband. However, because there is a divorce taking place, her solicitor may claim that her debt was run up to provide for the family and so when working out who gets what from the split, her debts could be taken into account and the husband could have to pay his share. My friend got fleeced like this when his ex ran up thousands of pounds on store cards while the divorce was going through and although the judge agreed that she had been kicking the !!! out of it, the joint funds from the sale of the house had to be used to clear her debts so he lost out on his share.

Strapped

Yep, unfortunately it's technically true that it should be soley her debt, but if there's a house sale or other assets etc in the divorce, then he might lose out. He needs good legal representation - you are right about not doing so being a false economy.

ravenk

JohalaReewi wrote: »

The debt is in the wife's sole name so she is liable not the husband. However, because there is a divorce taking place, her solicitor may claim that her debt was run up to provide for the family and so when working out who gets what from the split, her debts could be taken into account and the husband could have to pay his share. My friend got fleeced like this when his ex ran up thousands of pounds on store cards while the divorce was going through and although the judge agreed that she had been kicking the !!! out of it, the joint funds from the sale of the house had to be used to clear her debts so he lost out on his share.

They have no assets , such as a house. They have a car , but that has a loan against it. He took the car and is paying the loan each month.
She said can I keep the car. He said "Yes sure" ...just keep up the repayments then. Thus he took the car.
I'm sure he took his brain out of gear , when he married this woman.

I spoke to him tonight and he confirmed he did not know about these store cards. They are all in her name only.

Another question ....

If you simply dont pay the minimum payments or anything towards the card debt, can the final solution be the bailifs knocking at the door ?

I have seen it on TV for parking fine non payment and council tax.