subject: Dealing With Debts In Your Florida Divorce [print this page] When you are ending your marriage, you have a lot to think about as far as how your assets will be divided and how you will co-parent your child after your marriage ends. With so much going on, many people fail to be proactive in resolving joint debts. This can be a major mistake. You should always speak to a Florida divorce lawyer about both your assets and your debts so you can avoid trouble after your divorce becomes final.
The Problem with Shared Marital Debts
The biggest problem that many people have when it comes to dealing with debt in divorce is with debt belongs to both parties and that both people are obligated to pay it. For example, assume you and your spouse both co-signed for a credit card and your spouse then charged up your joint MasterCard. Even if you didnt make any of the purchases and were separated at the time when the purchases are made, the credit card company will look at the debt as belonging to both parties. This means that the credit card company could potentially make a claim against you for your spouses debt and could damage your credit if the debt is not paid back.
When you enter into a Florida divorce agreement, you may stipulate in that agreement that one particular party is responsible for paying back a certain debt. However, if your name remains on that debt, then the credit card companies can still come after you even if your divorce agreement says you arent responsible. When you co-signed and entered into a joint credit card agreement with your spouse, the credit card company based your approval on both of your incomes and both of your credit histories. This means that they are going to expect you both to pay and you cannot change the terms of your relationship with your creditor simply by entering into a divorce settlement with your spouse.
What Should You Do?
Because debt that you assign to your spouse in a divorce agreement can still come back to haunt you, the best thing to do when dealing with shared marital debt is to get rid of the debt during the course of the divorce proceedings. You can, for example, try to pay off the debt with marital assets or even sell an item that you both still owe money on (such as selling a car so that the two of you no longer have a shared car loan).
If you cannot pay off the debt, then you should consider trying to refinance so that the debt is only in the name of the person who owes it. The person who is responsible for paying it could potentially take a balance transfer, for example, or take a personal loan out so that the debt is only in his or her name.
Your Florida divorce lawyer can help you to explore the options for resolving marital debt in a way that best protects your legal rights and interests.
