I feel SO stupid.
My husband and I divorced in 1999. He kept the home and thus agreed topay me an equalization payment for it's unmortgaged worth, which at the time was about $350,000 - meaning I was to get 175,000. At the time he stated that he couldn't afford to pay me out and asked if he could make installments, to which I agreed. He did pay me a lump sum of $50,000 at the start, as well as paying out the last 4 years of my car loan (about $25 - $30,000) from the same pool of money. Beyond this, he paid me in monthly installments of the same amount - he never missed a payment and they were always of the same amount.
Our divorce agreement states: "any amounts outstanding from the $175,000 payable to the wife as of December 31, 2003 shall bear an interest rate of 6% per annum compounded semi annually."
I only remembered that date, and thus when my ex stopped paying me in january of 2004 I didn't think anything of it. Having sat down with my boyfriend and gone over the documents, we discovered that, in fact at the end of December of 2003, he still owed me approx. (dependent on the cost of the remainder of the car loan), $ 50,000. Which he hasn't paid (175k minus 50k [initial payout], -about 30k [car loan] - 44k [monthly payouts] = 51k). There is no mistake. I remember the cessation of payments clearly as I had just moved into a new apartment, and I certainly never received any lump sum that would make up the difference. Also, the court document confirms the amount and number of cheques issued to me between June of 2000 and December of 2003.
My problem is that I don't have my bank records from that time, and I have contacted my bank and their first answer is that they only keep records back as far as 7 years. Even if I can get some sort of bank record, I don't know how I would go about "proving a negative" - surely any good lawyer would simply say that if I showed them the true financial record that "obviously" I had another account which I am not sharing.
Is there a "statute of limitations" on these things?
I can hardly believe I was so dumb to miss such a huge sum - would a court accuse me of "holding off" payments to incur the interest fees?
What can I do? Ifeel so, SO stupid.
My husband and I divorced in 1999. He kept the home and thus agreed topay me an equalization payment for it's unmortgaged worth, which at the time was about $350,000 - meaning I was to get 175,000. At the time he stated that he couldn't afford to pay me out and asked if he could make installments, to which I agreed. He did pay me a lump sum of $50,000 at the start, as well as paying out the last 4 years of my car loan (about $25 - $30,000) from the same pool of money. Beyond this, he paid me in monthly installments of the same amount - he never missed a payment and they were always of the same amount.
Our divorce agreement states: "any amounts outstanding from the $175,000 payable to the wife as of December 31, 2003 shall bear an interest rate of 6% per annum compounded semi annually."
I only remembered that date, and thus when my ex stopped paying me in january of 2004 I didn't think anything of it. Having sat down with my boyfriend and gone over the documents, we discovered that, in fact at the end of December of 2003, he still owed me approx. (dependent on the cost of the remainder of the car loan), $ 50,000. Which he hasn't paid (175k minus 50k [initial payout], -about 30k [car loan] - 44k [monthly payouts] = 51k). There is no mistake. I remember the cessation of payments clearly as I had just moved into a new apartment, and I certainly never received any lump sum that would make up the difference. Also, the court document confirms the amount and number of cheques issued to me between June of 2000 and December of 2003.
My problem is that I don't have my bank records from that time, and I have contacted my bank and their first answer is that they only keep records back as far as 7 years. Even if I can get some sort of bank record, I don't know how I would go about "proving a negative" - surely any good lawyer would simply say that if I showed them the true financial record that "obviously" I had another account which I am not sharing.
Is there a "statute of limitations" on these things?
I can hardly believe I was so dumb to miss such a huge sum - would a court accuse me of "holding off" payments to incur the interest fees?
What can I do? Ifeel so, SO stupid.
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