Question ex husband filed ch7, am i safe from his bills ?

[mstpstl]

my ex filed and was granted a ch7 discharge. we had 4 credit cards in both of our names. he was suppose to deal with them when we got divorced as the charges were his. i had told him he was suppose to get ahold of the cc's and sign the form that released me from those cards. he said he would, then he filed for bankrupcy.

if the court discharged his debts am i still liabale for them ?
can they come after me for them ? even thou they were listed and discharged?
my credit has suffered the last few yrs cause he refused to pay his bills after we split up.
this is in the state of Missouri

[stormy]

I had to include several cards that were in both my name and my ex-husband's name; it has effected his credit. Discover got down right nasty with him; cut off his on-line access then turned around and jacked his interest up to 30% and he had been making payments on time and even paying more then the minimum. He told me he called them and they didn't care; I was an authorized user and since I declared bankruptcy Discover told him he was 100% responsible for the balance and on his income alone he no longer qualified for that much credit.

So in short, YES you are still liable for them and they can come after you for any balances, late fees, etc that are owed. The discharge only relieved your Ex of his financial responsibility; not yours.

[Clabbergirl]

Hmmm. I'm the one about to file BK, but my ex hasn't been paying his bills either and unfortunately we have a lot of joint credit. If I file BK, they will go after him for those he's joint or cosigned on - ok got that. But what happens if/when HE files BK, say a year or two later? Will the debts that I listed (which are all joint/cosigns between he and I) and got discharged in my BK become my responsibility again?!

[stormy]

The way it was explained to me was this; I filed BKCH7 and included both of my mortgages so now I'm no longer responsible for my 1/2 of the loans, my Ex is now 100% responsible. Now if he turns around and files BKCH7 it would basically wipe out the mortgages; they can't come after me because I already had them included in my bankruptcy and I'm discharged.

Once a debt is discharged they can't come back after you for it; at least that's my understanding.

I'm sure some of the others on this forum who are much more knowledgeable then me will chime in

[frogger]

my ex filed and was granted a ch7 discharge. we had 4 credit cards in both of our names. he was suppose to deal with them when we got divorced as the charges were his. i had told him he was suppose to get ahold of the cc's and sign the form that released me from those cards. he said he would, then he filed for bankrupcy.

if the court discharged his debts am i still liabale for them ?
can they come after me for them ? even thou they were listed and discharged?
my credit has suffered the last few yrs cause he refused to pay his bills after we split up.
this is in the state of Missouri

You are still liable. Provided that you have a court decree stating that he was responsible, you may have a legal case to sue him in order that you get paid.

[Clabbergirl]

Stormy, this is what I understood about the process. A divorce decree is only between the husband, wife, and the court. Person A marries person B, and they collect a lot of debt during the marriage - none of which include any clauses in their contracts that read 'I am responsible for this debt only as long as I'm married to A/B'. Creditors have every legal right to ignore the decree, and you can bet they will! If person A files BK and their loans are discharged, creditors will go after person B because that is another potential income stream left to them. But if person B has already filed BK, then that's too bad, right? I am person A, and hoping I beat my ex-B to the BK court....

[stormy]

My bankruptcy attorney told me that the my creditors didn't give a rat's behind what my divorce decree said; we had divided up the credit cards and my name was on both mortgages with a statement clearly stating who would pay what. It doesn't matter to your creditors, your name is on the credit card or on the mortgage; you're liable.

Now all the debt is off my shoulders and squarely on his. With my mortgages thrown in, my discharge was close to $280K; also included a pick up truck and a camper that was jointly owned.

[free2breathe]

The way it was explained to me was this; I filed BKCH7 and included both of my mortgages so now I'm no longer responsible for my 1/2 of the loans, my Ex is now 100% responsible. Now if he turns around and files BKCH7 it would basically wipe out the mortgages; they can't come after me because I already had them included in my bankruptcy and I'm discharged.

Once a debt is discharged they can't come back after you for it; at least that's my understanding.

I'm sure some of the others on this forum who are much more knowledgeable then me will chime in

Totally agree. Once you are discharged from your responsibility in the debt, you're done. They cannot come back after you when another responsible party for the debt finally files for their relief from it or years down the road fails to keep up with their payments. Whatever that other person's scenario becomes, you are still discharged from responsibility in those debts that were included in your bankruptcy. Thank goodness, right?

[bcohen]

Unless you had the debts discharged by filing bankruptcy yourself, you are still liable. Just because you and your ex-husband agreed to "divvy up" the debts among yourselves does not prevent the creditor(s) from coming after you. If he had NOT filed for bankruptcy, but merely defaulted on the debts, and the creditor(s) came after you, then if you paid, you could have sued him for reimbursement.

However, as he has now filed for bankruptcy and discharged his responsibility for the debts, your only options are to pay them yourself, or to file for bankruptcy yourself. Since you are "starting over" after your divorce, you might as well give yourself a financial "fresh start" and file for bankruptcy, unless you have some valuable non-exempt assets that you wish to keep.

[helpmeout]

What does your divorce decree state about mutual debt? That is going to tell you what you can do.

In mine, it states that we are to hold each other harmless in the event of bankruptcy. And this is the most important part: that all debt division and who is supposed to pay it is considered support. Fortunately, I had gotten my ex's name off of the mortgage.

If yours has that in it, he will be able to keep the creditors from coming after him. But once they come after you and start collecting, you can go after him in family court.

And he will be ordered to reimburse you. In other words, he will have to pay the debt. Whether it's to you or the creditors. You really should consult with an attorney who is knowledgeable in both family law and BK law.

Now, if you declare bankruptcy, it's a moot point.

[helpmeout]

Unless you had the debts discharged by filing bankruptcy yourself, you are still liable. Just because you and your ex-husband agreed to "divvy up" the debts among yourselves does not prevent the creditor(s) from coming after you. If he had NOT filed for bankruptcy, but merely defaulted on the debts, and the creditor(s) came after you, then if you paid, you could have sued him for reimbursement.

However, as he has now filed for bankruptcy and discharged his responsibility for the debts, your only options are to pay them yourself, or to file for bankruptcy yourself. Since you are "starting over" after your divorce, you might as well give yourself a financial "fresh start" and file for bankruptcy, unless you have some valuable non-exempt assets that you wish to keep.

She may still be able to sue him for reimbursement. It is all going to depend on the wording of her court order.

[mstpstl]

i'll have to dig up the papers from the divorce, but my understanding of it was we had agreed that he would take care of all his debt, including the 4 cards that we both had our names on. i dont remember that there was specific wording in it other then that we had already agreed on what would happen with our finaces, or that he needed to do anything for his BK.
i had thought since the divorce was dealt with ok and it was easy to work out between us, that i could assume or trust that he would of done what he said he would of.
i remember at one point i did call one of the CC companys and they explained they process in which to get my name off his cards. some form for him to get and sign and i would be taken off the card. he had said he would take care of it.
today i recieved a "garnishment" letter from the county court. it appears that the month before he filed his BK, one of the cc's filed suit in local court. 2 things bother me in that, #1 the process server claimed he hand delivered the summons to me, (i was home all day in question), #2 the process server claimed that when he went to the ex's house someone there stated that he doesnt live there anymore. so the suit went on, and they got a default judgement against me. (i never knew this suit was going on till today !! ) yes this is off this topic but this is part of the mess i'm dealing with now that he filed and was granted a BK but left my names on the cards he was suppose to have taken cared of

[Clabbergirl]

That's really too bad. How can you have this without ever receiving a summons? Your ex, well, he didn't have anything to gain from taking your name off the accounts, so whatever your relationship with him post-divorce, it obviously wasn't a priority. My CC's won't let me or the ex off because neither of us qualifies for the balances on our own. It wasn't as easy as just writing a letter - we would have had a credit check all over again just like applying for a new account. I'm really sorry you're in the middle of this.