subject: What You Need To Know About How Your Bankruptcy Works If You Are Married [print this page] Sometimes to get out of debt one must file for Bankruptcy. You pay a fee and they go take that money and pay things off for you. However, when you do this, you might wonder how to do it when you are married as you can. It just differs a bit. Here we will discuss how your bankruptcy works if you are married.
One question that some people will have is what happens if they come after me for loans? What if I only file and my spouse does not. Are they held responsible? We can answer that for you. The only way they are held responsible is if their name is on the loan as well. Otherwise, it is your situation and they will come after you.
Anything you own jointly is something that can be used to pay off debts. If you file taxes jointly, that can be used as well. So, you need to be careful and you need to explain this as you are going through the bankruptcy process. Your spouse needs to understand this and it is helpful to have a lawyer.
When you file for bankruptcy, you will find that your credit is in jeopardy. It will report that you owe and that you have debt. This is standard. However, you might also worry about your spouse as they do not have debt. What happens to their credit report?
With their credit report since they have their own, you will find that in many instances they will still have good credit as reported on their credit report. The only time that they will not have good credit is if you two had joint property and debt with the joint accounts and so forth.
From here things get fuzzy as you have to figure what sort of bankruptcy you want to file and so forth. You have two options as to which you can file. There is chapter seven and then chapter thirteen. Each one differs in its own way. This might be a decision you both discuss and with a lawyer as well.
The last tip we can offer as to how things are handled as you file for bankruptcy when you are married is that you need to know how your state runs. Each state handles bankruptcy differently and therefore, what might be for one state might be for another. This could work for or against you. You just never know.
For those of you wanting to know how this worked, this answers some of the tougher questions that you might have at first. However, this does not answer everything for you. Keeping that in mind, you must then work to ensure that you do get all your questions answered as this only skims the surface as to how this process works. It is a hard process to understand and many never think that they are going to have to do that; so, you will find that there are many lawyers who are happy to help you and find which route is best for you in all.
