Divorce, Bankruptcy & a Charge Off

Dealing With a Charge Off Due to an Ex-Spouse's Failure to Comply with a Court Order

I am recently divorced and during the divorce proceedings my ex filed for a Chapter Seven bankruptcy.

He was ordered by the Superior Court Judge to continue making all the payments. He stopped making the first and second mortgage payments on more than one occasion.

I had to petition the bankruptcy court to lift the stay in order to file contempt charges against him in Superior Court.

While all this is going on, unbeknownst to me, the second mortgage company charged off the debt.

The divorce decree states that my ex is obligated to pay the second mortgage through the life of the loan as part of the spousal/child support agreement. He has made the payments now for over a full year.

My name was on the loan, so the charge off is showing up on my credit report. At least they are showing the change in balance each month now.

They weren't doing that until 6-7 months after he began making the payments. The company has tons of documentation regarding the proceedings but maintains there is absolutely nothing they can do to help me.

Shouldn't I have received notice of the charge-off via my ex's trustee? Neither myself nor my attorneys ever knew that this account had been charged off until after the divorce was final.

Is there any advice you can offer me?

Melanie

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You should visit your attorney and have him straighten this mess out.

Your problem is a mixture of bankruptcy and matrimonial law with contract law thrown in and is probably beyond your ability to straighten out.

It is your debt - your were a co-signer and were not released by the creditor - so the creditor is looking to you for the money regardless of the matrimonial decree. Their attitude is probably that you are responsible for seeing that the bills are paid on time and they could care less about your other problems. To them, the charge off would seem justified.

[This is why co-signing is so risky.]

Since the problem arises out of your ex-husband's non-compliance with the matrimonial court's orders, your lawyer can explain the situation to the creditor and even put some pressure on the creditor to correct your credit report.

You can also write to the credit bureaus yourself and demand that an explanation of the situation be added to your report. Read your credit report for information on how to correct inaccurate entries.

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