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Dividing Marital Assets and Debts

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  • 07-21-2014, 02:36 PM
    readytoleave
    Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    My question involves a marriage in the state of: Ohio

    So without getting into to many specifics, I am looking to see what a likely outcome will be with this senario.

    These are ball park numbers. There is a total of 8000 dollars in marital debt. 6000 of it is on his card, and 2000 on mine. His card also includes a previous balance from prior to the marriage for renovations to his house. I also have a second credit card that has a balance of 1000 for the tv, and computer that was purchased for the house before the marriage, however he would be keeping the items that were purchased. In addition to this, I have spent over 5000 on things like daycare for our daughter, health insurance for him, prescriptions for his other daughter, since I left back in January. He is trying to make me take all of the marital debt, and keep all of the things that it purchased, AND not give me credit for any of the things that needed to be purchased on his behalf. He also has not offered any child support for our daughter, because he knows that he isn't obligated to since nothing was filed and were were attempting to go thru a non contested divorce. I have paid for everything for our daughter up until this point, and I have never withheld visitation.

    My quesiton is this... I am getting ready to file what will probably be a contested divorce, What is the most likely senario that would play out with dividing this debt? Since nothing was filed with the courts in January, but I have records of all of these payments that I made without any help from him, would I be able to claim that as a credit toward the marital debt? I am not trying to get out of jail free here, and am willing to take my share of everything, which I offered him in the begining, but he has refused, and wants me to take all of it and then some including a portion of his debt from before the marriage.

    Any information here would be very apprecitated. Thank you for your time.
  • 07-22-2014, 04:28 AM
    llworking
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Quote:

    Quoting readytoleave
    View Post
    My question involves a marriage in the state of: Ohio

    So without getting into to many specifics, I am looking to see what a likely outcome will be with this senario.

    These are ball park numbers. There is a total of 8000 dollars in marital debt. 6000 of it is on his card, and 2000 on mine. His card also includes a previous balance from prior to the marriage for renovations to his house. I also have a second credit card that has a balance of 1000 for the tv, and computer that was purchased for the house before the marriage, however he would be keeping the items that were purchased. In addition to this, I have spent over 5000 on things like daycare for our daughter, health insurance for him, prescriptions for his other daughter, since I left back in January. He is trying to make me take all of the marital debt, and keep all of the things that it purchased, AND not give me credit for any of the things that needed to be purchased on his behalf. He also has not offered any child support for our daughter, because he knows that he isn't obligated to since nothing was filed and were were attempting to go thru a non contested divorce. I have paid for everything for our daughter up until this point, and I have never withheld visitation.

    My quesiton is this... I am getting ready to file what will probably be a contested divorce, What is the most likely senario that would play out with dividing this debt? Since nothing was filed with the courts in January, but I have records of all of these payments that I made without any help from him, would I be able to claim that as a credit toward the marital debt? I am not trying to get out of jail free here, and am willing to take my share of everything, which I offered him in the begining, but he has refused, and wants me to take all of it and then some including a portion of his debt from before the marriage.

    Any information here would be very apprecitated. Thank you for your time.

    Since the TV and computer were premarital purchases made by you, the computer and TV are your premarital property and therefore belong to you.

    Its going to be difficult to determine how much of the 6000.00 balance on his card is premarital. Why? Because you have been paying on the card all along, plus (I am assuming) have added to the balance since you married. Generally its assumed that payments go towards the oldest part of the debt first. You certainly can and should try to determine how much of it is premarital, and argue against you being responsible for that, but hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

    Therefore its possible that you could end up being responsible for 1/2 of the outstanding debt, even though some of it was premarital. As far as the expenses you have paid since you separated, it unlikely that you are going to get any credit for that.
  • 07-22-2014, 06:28 AM
    readytoleave
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Thank you for your response...

    I just want to make sure that I am clear though before I move this forward. Since it was determined that the he spent 6 thousand after we were married on his card, and I spent 2 thousand on my card after we were married, which I have statements all showing, we would add those together and divide it by two? It doesn't matter who spent it, because we were married, is this also right?
  • 07-22-2014, 07:18 AM
    llworking
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Quote:

    Quoting readytoleave
    View Post
    Thank you for your response...

    I just want to make sure that I am clear though before I move this forward. Since it was determined that the he spent 6 thousand after we were married on his card, and I spent 2 thousand on my card after we were married, which I have statements all showing, we would add those together and divide it by two? It doesn't matter who spent it, because we were married, is this also right?

    Yes, that is correct. There can be exceptions to that, but that is pretty much the case. An exception might be if the money was spent on a significant asset that he might be keeping. For example, if the entire balance on his card was spent on antique furniture that he was keeping, there would be an argument to be made that it should be his separate debt.
  • 07-22-2014, 07:38 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Quote:

    Quoting llworking
    View Post
    Since the TV and computer were premarital purchases made by you, the computer and TV are your premarital property and therefore belong to you.

    Except they were purchased for the marital home, and odds are both parties contributed personal property and made purchases for the marital home. At a certain point, that type of contribution is apt to be viewed as having merged into the marital estate. Factors such as the parties' other contributions, length of marriage, treatment of the property during the marriage, and the like all can factor in. Also, if a $6,000 charge was made before the marriage to purchase the TV and computer, then that debt was paid down using marital assets, the claim that the assets are separate property is tenuous at best.

    Parties who litigate over a few thousand dollars in debt are apt to end up spending more than the value of the debt on the legal fees associated with the dispute. Most couples ultimately come to an agreement, settling the issues of property and debt division, rather than litigating them.
  • 07-22-2014, 08:30 AM
    llworking
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Quote:

    Quoting Mr. Knowitall
    View Post
    Except they were purchased for the marital home, and odds are both parties contributed personal property and made purchases for the marital home. At a certain point, that type of contribution is apt to be viewed as having merged into the marital estate. Factors such as the parties' other contributions, length of marriage, treatment of the property during the marriage, and the like all can factor in. Also, if a $6,000 charge was made before the marriage to purchase the TV and computer, then that debt was paid down using marital assets, the claim that the assets are separate property is tenuous at best.

    Parties who litigate over a few thousand dollars in debt are apt to end up spending more than the value of the debt on the legal fees associated with the dispute. Most couples ultimately come to an agreement, settling the issues of property and debt division, rather than litigating them.

    Very valid point. The problem is that this in not her first thread that mentions the debt. For some reason her husband is absolutely insisting that she be responsible for ALL of the marital debt...to the point where he attempted to bribe her with visitation rights for her stepdaughter if she would take all of the marital debt. I have a feeling that unless his attorney puts his foot down with him, that they are going to end up litigating that one.
  • 07-22-2014, 08:44 AM
    readytoleave
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Thank you again for the responses...

    When we first started working on dissolving our marriage, I offered to take 50/50 of the marital debt. And he refused. He wanted me to take all of it since he is keeping the mortgage, and thinks that I should be taking all of the debt for the renovations to the house, even though I have no claim to the house, regardless of the fact that I have been paying for half of the mortgage since he bought it. He bought the house three years prior to us getting married, and my name was never on anything for either the house or the renovations, but we furnished it together. I brought most of the furniture and "things" into the house from my previous apartment, and he purchased all of the appliances and house renovations on his credit. We paid for these things that are on his credit out of a joint checking account since the day we moved in together three years before we were married until the day I left in Jan. We were only married 11 months when I left. He is keeping everything in the house, including all of the furniture, marital gifts, appliances etc. When I left I left only with clothes for my daughter and I

    In order to keep it amicable, I was letting him have all of it, without making any claim to any of the things I have helped pay for, or brought into the house. I offered to take 50% of the debt that had accumulated since we got married, which was the debt mentioned in the first post. I am also still paying on the television and stuff, and I have offered to let him keep it. He refused. He also refused to help pay for our daughter's daycare, any doctor's bills, prescriptions, etc. He told me he let the mother of his other daughter know that she wasn't going to be able to use my HSA card any longer for his daughter's prescriptions, and that has turned out to be the first of many lies. It wasn't until I saw a charge for over a thousand dollars for two prescriptions that I realized he hadn't done what he said and got a hold of her myself. She said he never said anything to him, and she paid me back half of what she had spent. In a nutshell, he wants me to take about 15,000 in debt (the marital debt, plus his balance on the card prior to us getting married, that I had been paying half of all along) that I am not seeing anything for.

    So if I take this in front of a judge, and explain that he has kept everything except our clothes, and hasn't contributed one penny to help with our daughter since I left seven months ago, the likely outcome is that the judge will likely just tell me that I have to pay for half of the 8000 dollars or so? Because I will do that happily since that is what I wanted to do in the very begining.
  • 07-22-2014, 09:00 AM
    llworking
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    Quote:

    Quoting readytoleave
    View Post
    Thank you again for the responses...

    When we first started working on dissolving our marriage, I offered to take 50/50 of the marital debt. And he refused. He wanted me to take all of it since he is keeping the mortgage, and thinks that I should be taking all of the debt for the renovations to the house, even though I have no claim to the house, regardless of the fact that I have been paying for half of the mortgage since he bought it. He bought the house three years prior to us getting married, and my name was never on anything for either the house or the renovations, but we furnished it together. I brought most of the furniture and "things" into the house from my previous apartment, and he purchased all of the appliances and house renovations on his credit. We paid for these things that are on his credit out of a joint checking account since the day we moved in together three years before we were married until the day I left in Jan. We were only married 11 months when I left. He is keeping everything in the house, including all of the furniture, marital gifts, appliances etc. When I left I left only with clothes for my daughter and I

    In order to keep it amicable, I was letting him have all of it, without making any claim to any of the things I have helped pay for, or brought into the house. I offered to take 50% of the debt that had accumulated since we got married, which was the debt mentioned in the first post. I am also still paying on the television and stuff, and I have offered to let him keep it. He refused. He also refused to help pay for our daughter's daycare, any doctor's bills, prescriptions, etc. He told me he let the mother of his other daughter know that she wasn't going to be able to use my HSA card any longer for his daughter's prescriptions, and that has turned out to be the first of many lies. It wasn't until I saw a charge for over a thousand dollars for two prescriptions that I realized he hadn't done what he said and got a hold of her myself. She said he never said anything to him, and she paid me back half of what she had spent. In a nutshell, he wants me to take about 15,000 in debt (the marital debt, plus his balance on the card prior to us getting married, that I had been paying half of all along) that I am not seeing anything for.

    So if I take this in front of a judge, and explain that he has kept everything except our clothes, and hasn't contributed one penny to help with our daughter since I left seven months ago, the likely outcome is that the judge will likely just tell me that I have to pay for half of the 8000 dollars or so? Because I will do that happily since that is what I wanted to do in the very begining.

    Actually, since you didn't get any of the marital assets, the judge might not make you pay for half of the marital debt. Its unlikely that you would get out of paying for any of the marital debt, but it might be less than half. However, I am pretty sure that your worst case scenario would be half of the marital debt.
  • 07-22-2014, 01:27 PM
    readytoleave
    Re: Dividing Marital Assets and Debts
    HE FINALLY AGREED!

    Thank you all for so much help over the last couple of months.
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