Can I take my name off house??

[merime]

I have a lot of CC debt. Iam being sued by Citibank. I have a feeling my spouse is going to leave me over this. Can I ask, should and can I take my name off the deed of the house. I never paid a cent towards house, as I only started work in April of this year. For the past 17yrs, I did not work. I do not want my spouse to lose the house because of my problems. He is current on the mortgage. Any and all advice is so welcome!!

[catleg]

First of all NC is not a community property state so your spouse is not responsible for your debts.
All they can go after is anything with your name on it.
You may want to see if your house is covered by Tenancy by the Entireties.
This protects a house owned by husband and wife from debts owed by either one separately.
You need to have been married when you bought the house and it would have to be written that way on the deed.
Do you have equity in the house?
Without TBE, and if you have equity, you might want to sign a quit claim deed transferring your interest to your husband. You would need to do this before a judgment against you is issued. Then you'd have to ride out 1-2 years for the property transfer to become non-challengable and file bk7 yourself.
If you don't have equity you could go ahead and file bk7 yourself at anytime. (assuming you both are below median income..they will look at household income unfortunately).
Consider also cars and bank accounts.
Obviously you need to eventually talk to a local attorney but this should give you some talking points for further discussion.

[merime]

Thank you, Iam gooing to check that out ASAP!!

[GoingDown]

One thing I have noticed after dealing with an insolvent estate of a dead relative with a huge amount of debt is this...

For the most part, creditors and junk debt buyers and debt collectors don't know what is going on unless you tell them.

If you get the property out of your name, and don't tell them about it, they will probably never know about it.

And while it may or may not be a proper thing to do legally, they will probably never figure it out unless you tell them about it.

Are you going to tell them about it?

I hope not.

[frogger]

First of all NC is not a community property state so your spouse is not responsible for your debts.
All they can go after is anything with your name on it.
You may want to see if your house is covered by Tenancy by the Entireties.
This protects a house owned by husband and wife from debts owed by either one separately.
You need to have been married when you bought the house and it would have to be written that way on the deed.
Do you have equity in the house?
Without TBE, and if you have equity, you might want to sign a quit claim deed transferring your interest to your husband. You would need to do this before a judgment against you is issued. Then you'd have to ride out 1-2 years for the property transfer to become non-challengable and file bk7 yourself.
If you don't have equity you could go ahead and file bk7 yourself at anytime. (assuming you both are below median income..they will look at household income unfortunately).
Consider also cars and bank accounts.
Obviously you need to eventually talk to a local attorney but this should give you some talking points for further discussion.

Good answer and good talking points.

Remember - there is a huge difference between transferring assets ahead of creditors and before filing bk. If you have no intention of paying or loosing to the creditors, then do what you've got to do.

[merime]

sound advice. yes i am doing exactly what needs to be done. thank you all, and i will keep you all posted. i have found this site a lifesaver.