Marital Debts Can Include Loans Owed to Your Former In-Laws
In-laws can be a source of marital stress; some divorced people cite conflict with their spouse’s family as a factor that led to their divorce. On the other hand, couples who stay together only cite the support of their extended families as a source of strength. If your children are at the age where they begin introducing prospective spouses to you, keep in mind that you should be there for your children and their spouses when they need you but not to meddle in their business. If you are already divorced, then it is too late to learn this lesson for yourself, but you can apply it in the next generation in your role as an in-law. The people whose in-laws can afford to lend them money are the lucky few, but money can ruin family relationships just as easily as it can ruin friendships. From a legal perspective, divorce is a financial transaction. This means that your marital settlement agreement (MSA), or the judge’s decision, will assign responsibility to one or both former spouses for repayment of money lent to the couple by family members during their marriage. If you are getting divorced after borrowing money from your spouse’s family, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Yes, Your Ex-Spouse’s Relatives Can Sue You If You Don’t Repay the Money They Lent You During Your Marriage
You have a reason to be grateful if your grandparents are alive to attend your wedding and even more reason to be grateful if they have the means to lend you money after you marry. A young couple signed a marital settlement agreement to dissolve their marriage, and they divided their marital assets and debts. One of the debts for which the former husband assumed responsibility pursuant to the MSA was a loan from the former wife’s mother, and another was a loan from the former wife’s grandmother.
The husband did not make timely payments on the loans to his former in-laws after the divorce, and they brought the matter before the divorce court, claiming that the former husband had breached the MSA. The court issued a summary judgment in favor of the former husband. It reasoned that the MSA only governs the financial obligations of the ex-husband and ex-wife to each other, not to third parties. All it says about the loans from the mother and grandmother is that the ex-husband, not the ex-wife, is the one who owes them. Therefore, non-payment of the loans does not count as a breach of the MSA. If the mother and grandmother had signed loan agreements with the ex-husband when they lent the money, they could rely on these and file a debt collection lawsuit, just as they could with anyone who borrowed money from them and did not repay it.
Contact Schwartz | White About Divorce After Borrowing Money From Relatives
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if your debt obligations last longer than your marriage did. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1300793197115111881&q=divorce+pines&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025
