Mom loaned us money

What is the name of your state? Iowa, Polk County

Mother-in-law loaned us money.

$8000.00 for the car, I paid her back $4000.00.
$6000.00 for the house. Which maybe $2000.00 actually went toward the house, the rest went toward furniture and other things I can't remember now. Anyway we have a FHA loan which means that only a certian percentage was put down on the house anyway, right?
So my question is, If I keep the house and the car, do I owe mom-in-law $10,000.00? I don't feel that I do. But this is what hubby and Lawyer are asking for.

Let's see if I got this right, you borrowed $14,000 from your husbands mother, you payed back $4000**************.If my math is correct, then yep you owe her $10,000.
14,000 -
4,000=
10,000.
How do you figure you owe less?? If you borrowed the money you owe the money.

[ellencee]

jessierose

You say your mother-in-law loaned 'us' the money for the car and the house; you don't say when this was or how long ago this was or the income/earning situation of each spouse during the marriage or any other details such as other community property or jointly held property. You state your husband and his attorney but nothing about your attorney.

Your question is not one of simple math but one of asset and liability division.

You need an attorney if you do not have one; otherwise, you are going to be posting later on how to overturn a court's ruling that you absorb an unfair property settlement and unfair debts.

[nextwife]

"$8000.00 for the car, I paid her back $4000.00."

You still owe her $4000 for the car.

"$6000.00 for the house. Which maybe $2000.00 actually went toward the house, the rest went toward furniture and other things I can't remember now. Anyway we have a FHA loan which means that only a certain percentage was put down on the house anyway, right? "

FHA allows greater than minimum DPs. Minimum down is not always so with FHA. Some of that money may have been allocated toward closing costs, etc. Regardless, the $6000 you borrowed was intended to be for the home purchase. If, for example, you chose to have a $3,000 party with it, that's your problem. It is irrelevant as to whether this was a loan for a home purchase. If you get the car and home, MIL is still owed the remainder of the loan for acquistion funds.

If STBX jointly used some of his moms home purchase money to buy other stuff AND is taking that other stuff with him, then perhaps he should pay you the acquistion cost back of that item, and you use that to pay MIL that part of the funds owed to MIL?

The amount owed to MIL by the two of you is still $10,000, regardless of how you two chose to spend it.

I alone didn't borrow this money. In fact, it was her idea to lend it to us and no talk of re-payment was ever scheduled, nor do I believe that this would be an issue if we were not getting a divorce.

I don't feel that I owe her the full $10,000.00, I think that stbx should incure some of that cost too. It's his mom! All of the boys got money when there dad died, which was when she offered this money. I keep saying "borrowed", but over the past three years, whenever I attempted to start paying back his mom, he would say - "Don't worry about it, she probably doesn't expect it" So I thought, "It's his family" and he would know best. Plus, we were/are living pay check to pay check, so the relfief of not having to pay back mom was nice.

Just talked to the stbx. Since everyone is pushing for the sale of the house, I asked him what the beniefits woudl be.

He said that we would both walk away with around $10,000.00 in the equity. I siad, yeah but wouldn't I then need to pay your mom back $5000.00? and you would pay your mom back $5000.00? He said "No!"\
\

What? Somehting is very wrong about this, am I right?

[nextwife]

Yes, but you alone want to keep the asset. THat makes it yours.

You both took on the mortgage. IF you keep the house, do you think he should also be responsible for that? Look, you both got the money interest free for some time, so you got a break. If you don't wish to take on the debt, then you two could also sell the house/car and pay her back from proceeds and split any profit. MIL has a right to let her son not pay her back, she has no obligation to extend that courtesy to you as an ex-DIL.

You could keep the house and refi the debt into the mortage, paying her out of that. Rates are great and you likely have acquired some equity, which might knock the FHA insurance/PMI cost off a new mortgage.

[stealth2]

So...... you're keeping the property. Tell me again why you don't think you should repay his mother? Is he getting any of the equity out of the house or the car?