Who is liable for debts in a marriage ?

Can someone tell me what rules apply to debts within a marriage. My sister is just splitting up with her husband and they have a fair bit of debt between them but it's pretty evenly split with him having some and her having some. How does it work ? Do they all get lumped together and then split or do each of them just take the ones in their own name ? She has 4 and he has 7. Thankyou

Hi lady belle mostly if it can be proved that debts were run up but were used by both parties ie holidays and the likes then they are lumped into one, but not always the case there are the odd occasions where one could end up with debts all depends on circumstances and evidence, number of us in this boat so your sis is welcome to join and chat

I think she's going to join later on, I've just showed her the site. So who actually pays though ? she's trying to sort out who is going to pay what for now ?

Bumping this back up. Can anyone else give me some clarification on this please ? They have 11 creditors between them, but 7 are in his name and 4 in hers. How will this work, will she pay hers and he pay his ? Because if it had to be on who actually spent the money it would likely be her !! Is this something that cannot be answered ? Is it something that is mutually agreed upon, or is there a 'rule' somwhere ?

Ok again if it can be proved that both parties had use of the items purchased then they are equaly responsible and debts will be split equaly on the FH before settlement is then shared out, how ever should it be proved that only one party used the debt then they may well end up paying the larger share or all of it. But should one party say that they were forced into signing these contracts then it will be up to the person being accused to disprove it.

lady hi
this is whats happened to me and what can happen, debts in own name unless proven to be for the family marriage etc remain your own, I had the devils own job getting 7 years staements as directed and fought tooth and nail.... ours got split ,although in my name only ,and he also left with the charging order on house.... I think the law needs to address the debt situation in a more more clear cut way, esp in todays current climate
Your sister needs to stand her ground and gather as much evidence as she can
good luck to her
looby

Hi, I am in a bit of a mess with the financial side of my divorce.

I split with my husband 18 months ago and we have just sold our house - we dropped the price to sell due to the market. We agreed that the excess money from the house would pay off our debt (a loan and a credit card both in my name). As we dropped the price of the house this now wont cover the debt.

The loan and credit card are in my name as when we first got together he had a poor credit rating (some previous debt etc). I was studying for a degree, had a good credit rating and so got good deal on the loan.

The loan money went into joint account, paid off outstanding debt - car etc and was used when we purchased our house.

I have just received the divorce petition from him along with a letter from his solicitor claiming that he has no knowledge of these liabilities.... even though the payments have been made from the joint account the whole time and he has acknowledged them when splitting payments since we split up.

He also ran up an overdraft on our joint account since we split up - I had the account frozen but his solicitor has said I am jointly responsible for this as well....

I do not want to be left with the whole debt - approx 13K but dont know how to deal with this. Please help...