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Thank you to all who replied to my earlier post. I took your advice,
and talked to the mortgage holder who indicated to me the house was
foreclosed on, and sold over 18 months ago, and the amount 'left over'
after the foreclosure proceedings was sent to the Circuit court, who
applied to the oustanding lien against my wife. Apparently my wife
had given them an invalid forwarding address, and when they couldn't
reach us, they posted several public legal notices (I would guess in
the newspaper?) and did a judicial foreclosure. At any rate, the house
no longer belongs to me and I now have a foreclosure on my credit
report. I thought of two questions I wished I had asked the Clerk of
Courts when I called down there, figured I would ask them here in case
anyone knew. Am I correct in presuming the following 2 items are
true?
-that lien must have been taken off the house now, or the bank
couldn't have provided clear title to the house when it was sold,
right? How could I find out what the status of that lien is? Can the
clerk of courts tell me this?
-I assume that any property taxes were also paid off with the sale
proceeds as well. Is that a safe assumption, or should I call the
clerk of courts back? Is it possible that I still owe any property
taxes on that home?
Next question, is it within my legal rights for me to run a credit
report on my wife to find out exactly what her debts are, or do I have
to 'trust' that she will tell the truth when full disclosure is made
part of our divorce temporary hearing? She has lied so much
already...I know that you can't just go run a credit report on
anybody, but in reality she is still my wife, so I feel I have the
right to do it. But before I do, I want to make sure I wouldn't be
breaking the law.
It is my understanding that we are in a no-fault, marital property
estate, so no matter what the bills are, I am responsible for half the
debt. In our case, this amounts to quite a lot of credit card bills
that I found on my credit report, listed as joint credit. I have
resigned myself to knowing that I will have to pay them off completely
- my attorney has told me that family court has no effect on the fact
that legally, she and I together owe these bills. Family court can
assign her the responsibility to pay half the debt, but I know she
won't do it (she hasn't so far, why start now?). Here's my problem -
she is saying that once our divorce is final, she's going to declare
bankruptcy and start over. In essence, won't that mean that *all* the
debt will become mine now? And if that happens, am I better off
attempting to pay this all off over a couple of years, or playing the
same game as her and declaring bankruptcy. I asked my attorney this,
and he said his expertise is family law, and I think if I go to a
bankruptcy attorney to ask these questions, he'll just tell me to file
bankruptcy because that's where he earns his money. I'd like someone
who has nothing to gain to tell me which is better: slow paying,
painful debt reduction over 2 years (which is about what it will take
me) or file bankruptcy now? I'm thinking I need to pay all the debt
off, after all that foreclosure is 18 months old already, it'll only
be on my credit report 5.5 more years, a bankruptcy will be on there
another 10 years. I'd appreciate any advice you can give on this.
And my last question, several of these accounts that are showing up on
my credit report are listed as 'charge-offs'. I did some research,
and I don't really understand if that means that I still owe them the
money, or they gave up. Anyone know more about that?
I am meeting with my attorney tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice so
far, it has helped me get a handle on exactly how big the monster in
the closet has turned out to be. And to the person who posted the
extremely sage advice to spend money on my attorney because it's
peanuts compared to what she has sunk me into so far, thank you. I
will definitely be letting my attorney do his job, just want to be as
prepared as possible on all points, so I know the right questions to
ask.
A good day to all...
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