Debt before marriage

[dadtotheend]

Originally Posted by newone2010

If a person had $30000 of personal debt before getting married, and then became divorced after 2 years, does the partner have to pay half of that.

No. No. No.

[HammerDad]

Originally Posted by newone2010

Regarding the second point which may clarify things to others.

I believe Partner1 had a student line of credit that the father paid for and absorbed into his mortgage. So there was a record with a financial institution but then it was paid off (by the parent). There may be a case that this may not be considered a 'gift.' However, Partner1 pays monthly payments to the parent. Thus, might that hold up in court (of course, if it were during the marriage, not before as we have discovered in this thread)??? I dont know.

No, the debt was not paid off. It was assumed by payors parent and is still existing.

What you are suggesting is to have a debt that existed prior to marriage paid off via another loan from another party (in this case a family member), in an attempt to have it deemed marital debt. But in essense, the debt never ceased to exist, it was just the lender who changed. It is nothing but an transfer between creditors.

Any lawyer with even a 1/2 grain of salt would be able to trace the history of the debt to a judge, who would in turn hammer the party requesting that the debt be communal property as it is definitely not.