legal or illegal

[Gary Bentley]

My father in-law past away in 97. Several months before his death he took out a credit card (in his name only) to cover medical expenses. My mother in-law has attempted to pay off the bill but has run into difficulties. She phoned the credit card company and ask them if she was still liable for her late husbands debt. They stated she was responsible and several months later she started receiving the statements with her name on them instead of her husbands. Is she responsible for the credit credit debit and can they just switch the payments over to her without her consent. She didn't even have user privledges on the card when her husband was alive.

 

[HomeGuru]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gary Bentley:
My father in-law past away in 97. Several months before his death he took out a credit card (in his name only) to cover medical expenses. My mother in-law has attempted to pay off the bill but has run into difficulties. She phoned the credit card company and ask them if she was still liable for her late husbands debt. They stated she was responsible and several months later she started receiving the statements with her name on them instead of her husbands. Is she responsible for the credit credit debit and can they just switch the payments over to her without her consent. She didn't even have user privledges on the card when her husband was alive. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If your mother-in-law did not apply for the account and her name was not on it, she is not liable as it is not her account. Legally, she was never liable for this account and the credit company gave her false and misleading information to collect on the account. The credit card company is known as an unsecured creditor. If there is money in any estate account to pay the bill, the bill should be paid. Otherwise tell her to send a letter to the company stating the facts and that she is not responsible for the account. There are Federal laws governing these issues.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

My response:

I must respectfully disagree with my friend, Homeguru, on this issue. Nevada is a community property State and, as such, unless otherwise provided by statute, the community property or the estate is liable for a debt incurred by either spouse before or during marriage and at time of death, regardless of who has management and control of the property and regardless of whether one or both spouses are parties to the debt or to a judgment for the debt.

IAAL

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[HomeGuru]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by I AM ALWAYS LIABLE:
My response:

I must respectfully disagree with my friend, Homeguru, on this issue. Nevada is a community property State and, as such, unless otherwise provided by statute, the community property or the estate is liable for a debt incurred by either spouse before or during marriage and at time of death, regardless of who has management and control of the property and regardless of whether one or both spouses are parties to the debt or to a judgment for the debt.

IAAL

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you IAAL. The author mentioned that it is his mother-in-law that has the problem and did not say that she lived in Nevada. Although the author is from Nevada I presumed that his mother-in-law lives in another state and the credit card company is located in a different state than the mother-in-law. None of this would matter if in fact the mother-in-law lives in Nevada or in a state that shares the same community property laws as you have cited.

I was thinking along the lines of Federal consumer credit laws which would supersede the State statutes that establishes and protects a married individuals credit as a single person even though the individual is married. If a credit account is applied for, the individual qualified by the creditor and the account approved and established solely in one spouses name, the other spouse is not responsible for the account. In this instance, the husbands creditor can not arbitrarily place this account under the wifes' name, wifes' credit report and file a derog on her personal credit report. The account is under one SS# and the creditor and credit bureaus can not switch the account to be listed under another SS# because 2 entirely separate individuals are involved. Another Federal criteria is if the wife were to file Chapter, this account may not have to be listed as her debt on the schedule. I am unable to provide the applicable Federal laws at this time.