Repaying Debts Leftover From Your Marriage

When a couple gets a divorce, the family court must divide not only their marital property, but also their marital debts. Few families are debt free, and getting out of debt is an even greater challenge than resolving conflicts with your spouse, so the lucky few people who are debt free are unlikely to get divorced. All debts incurred during the marriage are marital debts, unless a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement says otherwise. That means, student loan debt can count as marital even though only one spouse used it to pay tuition. A small business loan is also marital debt even if one spouse tried unsuccessfully to start a business with the loan funds while the other remained employed at a salaried job. Pursuant to Alabama’s equitable distribution laws, the court can divide the marital debts based on its assessment, on a case-by-case basis, of the fairest way to divide them. It may consider which spouse benefited more from the borrowed funds, but it may also consider which spouse has a greater ability to pay. Most of the time, though, the court does not make this decision; it only signs off on the agreement you and your spouse have reached during mediation. If you are getting divorced and are worried that a huge burden of marital debt will follow you around after your divorce becomes final, contact a Birmingham divorce lawyer.

Ex-Husband Pays Ex-Wife’s Mortgage Until He Falls on Hard Times Financially

If a couple was jointly responsible for a home mortgage during their marriage, their divorce agreement usually requires the ex-spouse who keeps the marital home to refinance the mortgage in his or her name alone. This usually happens even if alimony accounts for part of the money that the divorcee uses to continue paying the mortgage on the former marital home. When Patricia and Paul divorced, they agreed that she would keep the marital home, and he would continue paying the mortgage on it. Paul kept paying the mortgage directly to the mortgage lender, while also sending Patricia weekly alimony checks, as the court had ordered. The mortgage payments became less expensive when, several months after the divorce became final, Patricia refinanced the mortgage loan.

Six years after the divorce, Paul could no longer afford to pay Patricia’s mortgage. He had bought a house for himself, and he also owed a mortgage on that house. When the lender called Patricia about the missed payments, she called Paul, and he told her to figure something out, because he could no longer afford to pay. Patricia was able to avoid foreclosure and keep her house by borrowing money to bring the loan current, but a legal dispute ensued between the former couple about whether Paul must reimburse Patricia.

Contact Peeples Law About Divorce Cases Involving Rehabilitative Alimony

A Birmingham family law attorney can help you if the court ordered your ex-spouse to pay marital debts, but your ex fell behind on payments.  Contact Peeples Law in Birmingham, Alabama today to schedule a consultation.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5222000162888650981&q=divorce+club&hl=en&as_sdt=4,61,62,64&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025