Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia
My divorce decree ordered the sale of the marital residence and equal division of the proceeds. My Ex was ordered to make the mortgage payments until the house sold. I was the out spouse, and I had a contigency contract to buy another house. It wasn't until after the divorce was final that I learned that having my name on the mortgage of the marital residence was an impediment to my obtaining a loan to buy the new house. Because there was only one year left on the old mortgage, I was able to pay it off so that I could procede with my new purchase. I informed my Ex that I would want to be reimbursed when the property sold. My Ex kept the house from selling for more than two years by keeping the price well above its appraisal value. When I threatened to sue him for contempt of court, he began lowering the price by increments of $5000 every few weeks. When he finally got the price down close to the house's market value, he got a reasonable offer that he turned down. He eventually had to accept a lesser offer. At the closing, he refused to reimbuse me of the payoff money. Do I have a chance of recovering the money in small claims court?
3 Answers from Attorneys
From your post, you did not have a lawyer for this series of events. A good lawyer would have made sure you were paid at closing, and likely would have protected the value of the house in a sale (and explained how you were at risk by agreeing to rely on your ex to make the payments). You can continue down this road and get little or nothing, or you can get good advice from a lawyer who can review the documents and determine the best course of action. Not doing this from the beginning may have cost you quite a bit of money.
You tried to save a few dollars and do this without a lawyer until now and screwed up badly. A lawyer would have drafted proper paperwork at the time you paid off the loan that would have avoided your problem now.
Can you sue now? Maybe (it depends on what the paperwork says). Will you collect? Maybe. Your odds are very low pro se. Whether a lawyer can help now depends on what the papers say, so you need to see a lawyer.
A small claims court (Magistrates Court) may or may not have jurisdiction depending on the paperwork.
You really have made a mess of this. I don't know why you voluntarily paid off this mortgage. I understand why you did it, but that was not the right way to go. If your ex-husband waws being recalcitrant, then why did you not go to court and file the contempt petition and ask the family court for relief?
Your divorce settlement agreement needs reviewed as you may have to go back to family court if the agreement was merged/incorporated into your divorce decree. If it was not, and the amount claimed is under $15,000 then you can try small claims if your ex-husband still resides in GA. However, I am unclear under what legal theory you feel that your are entitled to recover the reimbursement. Just because you informed your ex-husband does not mean that you should be reimbursed. Again, you paid voluntarily - no one forced you to do so.
You do not indicate whether you had a family attorney during the divorce. If you did, then you should contact that attorney. If you did not, then have a family law attorney review the agreement and advise as to whether some kind of relief can now be sought in the family court.
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