Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland
Rights in a divorce regarding property agreed upon in divorce agreement, but not
My husband's divorce papers indicated that he is responsible for his automobile and his ex-wife is responsible for her's. He is co-signer on the financing of her car, but not on the title. She has been 30 days late 22 times and 45 days late 7 times. Because he is on the financial papers, the lender is coming to him for payment, but the divorce papers state that he is not responsible. Because this effects his credit, is there any recorse that can be persued. If he takes the vehicle, would it would be considered theft because he is not on the title? How can we solve this problem and mend his credit for our future?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Rights in a divorce regarding property agreed upon in divorce agreement, but
Unfortunately, the agreement between your husband and his ex doesn't affect his obligation to the finance company on the car loan. They will always look to whomever they can most readily collect from to satisfy a delinquency. Your husband's separation agreement probably has a clause that requires the ex to indemnify him from any losses he sustains as a result of having to pay her debt, but that is symbolic unless she has a job or some assets from which he could recover his losses. If so, he can sue her for breach of the agreement, or if it was incorporated in the divorce decree, apply to the court for a show cause order. He can't simply take the car because unlike the finance company, he doesn't have repossession rights. They will probably do that soon anyway if she remains delinquent. The worst part of this is the effect it will have on his credit rating. The credit bureaus won't distinguish between "his" debt and "her" debt in reporting delinquencies.
If he can't get the ex to bring and keep the loan up to date, the only other recourse is to either work a deal with her to buy the car and pay off the loan or to encourage the finance company to repo it if she's sufficiently behind to meet their criteria for repossession.