Has anyone Filed Chap 7 without your spouse?

[TomTea31]

I will be filing chap 7 alone. I am married but we have no joint debt, and it doesn't make since to ruin my husbands credit when his is 100% clean. The agency I'm going through said this is fine. We have no assets except 2 cars that aren't worth much and they are in his name. I was just wondering if anyone has done this, and what does it mean for the non filing spouse? I do live in a comm property state, WA.

[IamOld]

I/we have BUT - comm prop states complicate things....Des on the boards here will comment I'm sure.
It's not a problem in NON comm prop states, but in comm prop....it may not be possible to insulate him from it UNLESS your debt comes from BEFORE you're married (as I understand it...)

[murphsmom]

My husband filed alone, and the BK was just closed last month. All debts were solely in his name, and we do live in a comm property state. What they were concerned with was our joint ASSETS. If the household had an asset, no matter if it was his or mine, they could take it. Our exemptions covered everything, basically we had nothing of value, not even an engagement ring. Even though you aren't filing, and it most likely won't affect your credit score (it didnt touch mine), they can and will apply joint assets to the equation. My name was not even on our mortgage or deed to the house, not sure if it would affect your credit if you are on a deed.

[nceguyfromne]

I filed without my wife and she had no issues whatsoever. No attempted collections and no credit report issues. She was even an authorized user on my largest credit card ($25K balance) and had charged at least a couple thousand of that amount on her card.

In terms of you living in a community property state, it only presents an issue if your personal property (that you owned prior to the marriage) plus HALF the value of the marital/community property (everything you guys acquired after that), including the cars, exceeds your state's exemptions. Assuming that is not the case then you have nothing to be concerned about. A good lawyer will ensure that every exemption you're entitled to gets applied to ensure you the best possible chance of having a "no asset" case. Both of our cars were in my name so I had to declare them both entirely as my own. Still no issues.

In some ways, community property could even work to your advantage because items that might otherwise just be yours are instead owned by both of you and you only have to declare half their value.

[TomTea31]

Ok good. We have no assets together. We don't even own a home yet.