Advice on auto loan charge off

[earena]

Back in 2010, my exhusband asked me to cosign on his car. He was the only person on my car and couldn't get a second loan in only his name. I didn't work and had a horrible credit score, but it worked and I cosigned. A year later we got divorced and in 2012 he let his car go into reposession.... In my divorce agreement it stated that I was not responsible for his debt INCLUDING the auto loan with Volkwagon credit because he let it go, and again, I wasn't working so I couldn't keep up the payments. The amount is right around $5,000 and it is hurting my credit so much. It is a charge off, and they report it late every few months. I sent a dispute in with a copy of my divorce agreement with no luck. They verified that the debt was mine because my name is on the debt. I wonder if a good will letter would work in this case. I really can't afford a settlement for that amount right now, plus my ex messed up!! LOL. He did it just to screw me over, because the next month he bought a mini cooper cash....(He's foreign and could care less about credit) Or should I just wait out the next three years and cringe everytime my score gets built up then drops 10 points because they decide to report that month. HELP ME!!

[Anonymous]

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@earena wrote:

Back in 2010, my exhusband asked me to cosign on his car. He was the only person on my car and couldn't get a second loan in only his name. I didn't work and had a horrible credit score, but it worked and I cosigned. A year later we got divorced and in 2012 he let his car go into reposession.... In my divorce agreement it stated that I was not responsible for his debt INCLUDING the auto loan with Volkwagon credit because he let it go, and again, I wasn't working so I couldn't keep up the payments. The amount is right around $5,000 and it is hurting my credit so much. It is a charge off, and they report it late every few months. I sent a dispute in with a copy of my divorce agreement with no luck. They verified that the debt was mine because my name is on the debt. I wonder if a good will letter would work in this case. I really can't afford a settlement for that amount right now, plus my ex messed up!! LOL. He did it just to screw me over, because the next month he bought a mini cooper cash....(He's foreign and could care less about credit) Or should I just wait out the next three years and cringe everytime my score gets built up then drops 10 points because they decide to report that month. HELP ME!!

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yeah.... CRA's (and lenders) don't give a rats patootie about divorce agreements. Do you know the SOL in your state?

[earena]

Sorry, what is SOL?

[gdale6]

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@earena wrote:

Sorry, what is SOL?

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Its Statute of Limitations, every state sets their own timetables on these.

[Anonymous]

Short of filing a suit for enforcement of the decree and asking the court to issue you a judgment from him to pay it off, there isn't much you can do with the divorce decree.

And the cost of that fight (court costs and attorney's fees, for a start, never mind process servers or mediators or anything else) might be better spent negotiating with the lender, if he has no cash or assets you can garnish or foreclose to collect the money.

Meanwhile, there unfortunately isn't anything you can really do to remove it from your credit report or repair the damage it's doing, short of paying it off.

If you do manage that, you could always sue him in civil court for repayment, using the decree as the basis of your claim, and take a judgment against him after the fact.

[RobertEG]

I would file an immediate civil action against him for breach of his ordered obligation under your divorce decree.

He may not care about your credit, but he certainly can be made to care about his financial obligation to the divorce court.

Not paying on the joint loan and then having the funds to buy another vehicle would likely bring flames of wrath from the gavel of the judge.

That is both willful and egregious conduct.

[Imperfectfuture]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I would file an immediate civil action against him for breach of his ordered obligation under your divorce decree.

He may not care about your credit, but he certainly can be made to care about his financial obligation to the divorce court.

Not paying on the joint loan and then having the funds to buy another vehicle would likely bring flames of wrath from the gavel of the judge.

That is both willful and egregious conduct.

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I agree.  This is easily settled in small claims court, with your divorce decree.  When he has judgement, present that to the agencies and the original creditors.

[Anonymous]

present that to the agencies and the original creditors.

OP is still liable for amounts due with the original creditors.  No judgment, divorce decree or civil, is going to absolve her of that, unfortunately.

A civil judgment against the ex would make him pay OP the amount to cover the debt, assuming she can collect on that judgment.  Just getting the judge to sign isn't going to make the debt go away or make the original creditor take it off either party's credit as delinquent.  Once a judgment is signed, it must be executed - which means the ex must either voluntarily cough up the cash to cover it, or he must have assets (bank account to garnish, property to seize) to cover the amount of the judgment, presumably the total due on the debt plus court costs and attorney's fees, if she uses an attorney.  This process can literally take over a year, from filing to execution (if indeed execution is possible).

The only way to remove the debt from OP's credit report is to pay it - whether she does that and sues to get her money back, or whether a family court judge enforces the decree and orders ex to do it (and he obeys), or whether she sues for a collectable judgment and uses that money to pay it off.

[RobertEG]

I interpreted the "submit it to the creditor" step to refer to using it as basis for then requesting good-willl removal of the derogs from her credti report based on showing that the derog resulted from actions beyond her control, not as a legal basis for assertng that the reporting is inaccurate and thus is requried to be deleted........

[earena]

Small claims court isn't going to work. Even if the court ordered him to pay it, he would drag it out to where he paid $10 a month, plus it will wake the sleeping beast...Once I find the extra $5000 laying around I'll pay it , but until then I guess I have to wait 3 more years for it to fall off. The account was set up un MD so I'm assuming they will go by their SOL.