Ex husband now in an IVA leaving me liable for all our debt.

[Kazmo]

Hello. I Split from my Husband just over 2 years ago. At the time we had a £10,000 bank loan and a £5,000 overdraft. In the divorce, for reasons unimportant here, he agreed to pay off the £10,000 loan while I agreed to pay off the £5,000 overdraft.

The problem is that he hasn't been paying the loan and the payments are still coming out of the account where the overdraft is, meaning that any money I paid in was easily swallowed up by the £236 a month due on the loan.
So basically the loan was getting smaller, the overdraft larger.
He then entered into an IVA and tells me that he had to add both the Loan and Overdraft.
The problem I have is that NATWEST advertise themselves as Helpful Banking, they are far from this, No one there seems to be able to help me or understand this situation and pass me from dept to dept, they just keep tellimg me I am liable for all of the debt, but can give me no other advice on how to solve this mess, be it in a branch, their recoveries dept or collections dept, I have never once even received a letter from then telling me there is a problem!
So, as I understand it I will now be liable for all of the leftover debt once his IVA is finished and also all of the interest and charges accrued in that time.
Can you advise what I should do? What my options are?
With the help of new partner I managed to keep my house and I now have a joint mortgage with him....will this affect this mortgage at all, now or in the future?
Obviously if it came to it I could borrow on the mortgage to pay off the £5,000 overdraft I originally agreed to pay (which is how I was going to pay the £5k anyway) but this has already now increased to £8,500 due to the loan payments continually coming out along with interest and charges.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[KAYKAY]

Hello and welcome to the forum.... my understanding (and it is only my understanding) is that in the case of joint loans/overdrafts both parties are liable for the whole amount until the account is cleared. Your husbands IVA company will keep paying dividends to the bank, reducing the balances slightly, but until the balances are clear then you are equally liable. As I said, I am no expert and would advise you wait for a few more replies to your post.

[Broke of London]

Usually, you are both jointly and individually liable for the full amount of both debts. So while your ex makes his contributions in the iva, you will be required to maintain contractual repayments on the loan and continue clearing the overdraft. If you don't, your credit rating could be adversely affected. You may also think about filing a notice of dissasociation with the CRAs so your rating is not affected by your ex's iva as currently you will still be financially associated. If it was a court decision your ex pays the loan, then you may not be liable for this but only an expert will be able to advise - hopefully one will be along soon x

[Niobe]

I don't think that filing the notice will help if you have joint finances.

Agree that you need to speak to an expert though - I'm sure one will be along soon as BOL says.

[artemischild]

Agree with the above, because you made a priavte arrangement about paying back the credit you were both always fully liable for the debts, because your ex is in an IVA he is essentially protected from the creditor hasstle etc, you will need to speak with the creditors directly about a repayment plan they will accept taking into account they will also recieve contributions from the IVA pot.

However, please be aware that most creditors may continue to mither you for the full debt, there fully aware they probably wont get it all back via the IVA so they will target you to try and recover as much as they can.

You really need to get advice on this, either from a CAB who should be able to act as a mediator or from your own solicitor.

please do let us know how you get on

Ary

[trionon]

Kazmo - on a seperate note, NatWest are most definetely NOT helpful banking, whether it's being part of RBS that determines their draconian policies, I don't know but to give you an example: they charge £6 A DAY in unarranged overdraft fees for as long as the account remain overdrawn on top of the interest charges. I once had an aco**** with them which wasn't a main one and went over by literally £2.16, having totally forgotten about it, the resulting charge was £24 because I reapid it a few days later. When I asked how they can justify this, they just told me it's in their T&Cs, which, of course does not make it reasonable but they told me to lump it basically

[plasticdaft]

no bank is helpful when debt repayments fall too far behind and I agree regarding a notice of disassociation being useless in this case as there is clear evidence of joint borrowing.

A visit to your local citizens advice bureau may be worthwhile,and cheaper than getting legal advice.

Paul

[Rod Newman]

Just a thought but was anything written into the divorce settlement whereby the ownership of the various debts was decided? I know when I got divorced it was written in that while I accepted the responsibility for all the debt and in return for having no responsibility for that debt my ex wife would not have any come back for any later increase in my salary or any windfall windfall.

[Broke of London]

It is important to take proper advice on the loan as the divorce settlement may have affected the liabilities written into the original agreement.