Who gets the debt when you divorce... a friend needs advice??

[M2T]

Hi folks,

My best friend got married last July and decided after 7 months that she didn't love him! It's on another thread somewhere...

He is living with his parents, she has rented another flat. They didn't buy ahouse/car or have any children. Bank Accounts were always separate.

However, when they got married he announce that he was 18k in debt with CreditCards! All were in his name and most of the debt was accrued before they got married. He couldn't cope with the monthly payments (although didn't miss any payments) so he saw a financial advisor who advised him to consolidate the debt and pay it off over 10 years.

6 months later they separated.

Does he have any rights to try to offload some of his debt to my friend?

She's been so silly about all this and has buried her head in the sand. She seems to think that after 2 years she can just divorce him. But I know that he will NOT agree. And he's been sending her texts telling her to get a good lawyer.

As they didn't have any joint belongings or savings I can only assume he means for the debt.

Any legal eagles out there.

PS: It's Scottish Law.

TIA oh wise Mumsnetters

I would say his has almost zero chance and knows it but is just doing this because he is very angry about being left. They have no assets to divide, no children and provided the debt isn't in her name as well as his or secured on joint property I think he can go whistle. The building society/bank will not go after her. She can divorce him after two years whether he likes it or not. He wil have no say, and even if she wants to divorce him sooner (which I would recommend given his behaviour) she can do so simply by filing for a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour. She can put anything down and she'll get a divorce - his debts, his snoring, his working late, whatever, it really doesn't matter much. He can defend it but it won't stop the divorce going through. She can do it more cheaply if she downloads the forms from the internet or picks them up from her local court, gets some legal advice for a couple of hours, and does most of the work herself. But I really think he is just trying to upset and hurt her because that's how he feels.

Whoops sorry, you're right, two year separation is with consent, it's five years without. She should go for a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour. Hiding his debts from her is ample cause to go for the divorce. For unreasonable behaviour to count, she must have left him within six months of the unreasonable behaviour happening though, so if she left seven months after he told her about the debt she'll have to say something like, it was his continuing to get deeper into debt having promised to tackle it. Plus any old guff about his bad temper, secretiveness about financial matters, unkindness etc etc.

Part of me hopes that you are right and it'll be easy for her, but another part thinks that it's about time she had to face the consequences of her actions! She’s never had to before and her parents bail her out all the time.
I feel so sorry for him as most of the Credit Card debt was spent on her whilst she was at college! He supported her. She never seemed to mind when he bought her a new coat or a pair of shoes or a suit for a job interview. She didn't care where the money came from.
Plus she wanted a platinum and diamond engagement ring... he put that on one of the Credit Cards coz he couldn't afford and she knew this.

S’pose he’s been a mug.

As far as I know (DH & I decided to get rid of our joint finances for tax reasons). You are only responsible for debt if the debt is in your name/joint names. A couple with a joint bank account that say, goes overdrawn, will both be pursued equally. If the wife refuses to pay/dissappears the husband is considered equally responsible for the whole debt not half. Any debts that your mates hubby took out alone will not result in your mate being pursued as she didn't sign a thing/had nothing to do with them.

Sorry, I take that back as I don't know about Scotland. Them Jocks have some funny bloody rules.