QUESTION
Wife's ex-husbands house being foreclosed on, can they come after me and my wife for our business assets and personal assets?
Asked on Jun 13th, 2017 on Divorce - New York
More details to this question:
My wife divorced her ex-husband 8 years ago, and they owned a house together. The divorce court said that she has no legal obligation or rights to the house after the divorce. Fast forward to 8 years later, her ex husband's house is being foreclosed on and he owes $140,000 on it and it's only valued at about $80,000 (he racked up $60,000 in non payment fees over the 8 years.) The mortgage company is demanding the extra $60,000 after the house is sold and said if they can't get it from him they will get it from my wife because she was a co-signer on the original loan, and they don't care what the divorce court said as far as who was responsible. My wife and I jointly own a business (LLC Partnership) and have a joint bank account (business and personal), can the mortgage company seize our business assets and money from our joint account legally? If so, what should we do to protect our business assets and our money?
1 ANSWER
Civil Rights Law Attorney serving Rockville Centre, NY
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Lori Nevias, Attorney at Law
1 Award
If your wife's divorce agreement says she has no legal obligation to the house, there was also be a provision requiring the ex husband to refinance and get her name off the mortgage. If he didn't do that he's in breach of the divorce agreement and she should take him back to court to sue him (if there's anything to collect), That being said, the foreclosure process can be a long one. You haven't said whether the ex intends to do a loan modification and fight the foreclosure or walk away from the property, or what stage the foreclosure is in. If the ex is considering a modification because he wants to stay in the house, that may solve the problem for you. A successful modification will necessarily get your wife's name off the loan. But if the foreclosure goes through and your wife's name is still on the loan and the bank gets a money judgment against her and her ex for the shortgage amount after a foreclosure sale, the bank can come after your joint personal assets- but not the business assets.
Answered on Jun 15th, 2017 at 7:34 PM