Community property states...........

[magyar123]

I think that there is a great misconception in what people think that they are liable for when they are married in a socalled community property state.
A husband is NOT liable for his wife's debts if those debts are ONLY in her name.
If the wife has credit cards in her name only and not joint, they are her credit cards only. There are no marital status questions on those applications.

[DisneyGirl]

I don't know about that. When my DH and his ex got divorced in 1992 she had a credit card and a checking account in her name only. He was ordered by the judge to pay off her outstanding debt and the bad checks she wrote while he was at sea (Navy). This was in WA which is a community property state. Of course she was also unemployed and he had a good paying job so maybe the judge just felt sorry for her.

By the way none of her stuff shows up on his credit report, thankfully!

[magyar123]

Thanks for your comment........but what you stated was a divorce order/settlement, not a creditor/debtor issue. The divorce judge "sentenced" him to paying her debts. Had she just taken off on him without actually divorcing him, he would not have been liable for her debts.

[HHM]

I think that there is a great misconception in what people think that they are liable for when they are married in a socalled community property state.
A husband is NOT liable for his wife's debts if those debts are ONLY in her name.
If the wife has credit cards in her name only and not joint, they are her credit cards only. There are no marital status questions on those applications.

You may need to quote your facts to back up that statement.

If the debt was "incurred" during the marriage, it is technically community debt regardless of whether the cards are in so and so's name. The theory behind community property is that the law "assumes" that any debt incurred during marriages is for the benefit of the "marriage unit". Also, keep in mind, whether you are in a community prop. state or not, a married couple is a "single" financial entity in the eyes of the law.

However, as a "practical" matter, most creditors DO NOT pursue a spouse in a community property state who is not at least named as an authorized user.

[Granny]

Furthermore, the IRS has their own set of rules for community property states and their collections efforts.

Taxes owed by a spouse prior to a marriage becomes a debt of both spouses. Any future refunds will be retained unless the parties file separately or the innocent spouse files for innocent spouse relief, in which case, the IRS still keeps 3/4 of the refund (that the percentage for Texas).

Our local utilitiy company apparently has their own set of rules too. My ex and his wife ran up a utility bill when they were married. I turned 18 and moved out on my own. When we married, I kept the utility in my name. Somehow, the utility company made the connection with my husband and the outstanding bill was tacked onto my bill. I was still in high school when they ran up that bill, but it didn't matter to the utility company, because I was married to someone who had an old bill, I was stuck with it.

You marry someone in a community property state, you marry their separate debts. However, you divorce them you also divorce their separate debts.