Fiance bankruptcy in CA

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What is the name of your state? California

Hi, my girlfriend is planning on declaring bankruptcy. I was thinking about asking her to marry me, but (and I know this is going to sound cold hearted) I need to know how her bankruptcy would affect me if we got married after she did it. It would not be too big a deal if it only affected me, but I am in business with my brothers and we are in real estate, so if my credit gets hammered then it would affect all of them as well since we apply for loans jointly. Basically what I need to know is if there is any way that I can keep her bankruptcy from affecting my family business? If I do my business transactions as private property (since it comes from premarital assets) would I be able to keep her out of the equation until the bankruptcy is off her credit report? I am pretty sure she would be willing to do that if possible, I just need to keep her bankruptcy from hurting my family.

Thanks

 

[Ladynred]

I need to know how her bankruptcy would affect me if we got married after she did it.

It would not affect YOU at all, especially if she files before you get married. Just because you get married does NOT mean you automatically inherit your new spouse's debts (or assets for that matter). Since all of her credit issues and bankruptcy would be hers AND pre-marital, they are ONLY hers, community property doesn't enter into the equation.

The only affect it may have on you as a COUPLE would be getting any joint credit after you marry. You would have to keep her name off any credit applications for a while.

Basically what I need to know is if there is any way that I can keep her bankruptcy from affecting my family business?

You don't have to keep anything away .. it's not gonna happen.

would I be able to keep her out of the equation until the bankruptcy is off her credit report?

That will take 10 years as that is how long a bankruptcy can be reported. However, it is NOT a credit death sentence for 10 years. All she needs to do afterwards is to engage in credit repair, clean up the inaccuracies, and then start carefully building a new, CLEAN credit history.

I just need to keep her bankruptcy from hurting my family.

Bankruptcy is not the equivalent of some plague. Where do people get these ideas ?? It's NOT contagious, it cannot be pasted to you or ANYONE but HER and it can never be reported on YOUR credit report.

 

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follow up question

Thanks for the info, but just to make sure I got it right, when I apply for a loan with my brothers to buy real estate, the bank will only look at my credit and not at my spouse? I thought I remembered from a secured transactions class that the bank will look at your spouse too, unless you do some procedure specifically to keep the spouse off the loan and keep it separate property, but that was a couple years ago and we never discussed bankruptcy.

Thanks

 

[Ladynred]

If you and your brothers buy real estate AS A BUSINESS, not personally, then there's no reason they would pull her credit. They have no right to pull her credit if she is not applying. You can APPLY for credit individually in a community property state and it should not be an automatic pull on the spouse's credit, they're not extending credit to your spouse, they're extending credit to you - and your brothers. If they tried to include her on a business loan, I'd be nailing them for impermissable purpose !