Voluntary Car Repossession ?

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Q. Voluntary Car Repossession ? My wife and I have been in America a year, and many things have changed between us, so we are going to get a divorce. We married in the U.S. I was prepared to try to save our marriage, but my wife is not willing to, so separation was our only option. My residence is in NC and I understand that we would have to separate for a year before the divorce. I am the U.K citizen. I have a number of questions that I hope you guys can help with. 1)I (alone) will be moving back to the U.K, so could we get divorced under U.K law? 2)Does the separation agreement cost a great deal, as we have very little money. 3) Would I be in any way responsible for my wife finically, even though we have no children and I am returning to the U.K to probably go bankrupt? And what If she doesn’t push for support, is that the end of it. We did earn similar salaries. Could I be pursued in the U.K for support payments? 4) I have a car on finance in the U.S and I plan to return it, as I understand it’s difficult to sell a car on finance without the finance being cleared first (and I can’t afford that). My wife is a co-signer, so I if I return the car it counts as a voluntary reprocession and will damage both credits, but only in the U.S? Obviously my wife wouldn’t be happy about this, but I don’t see an option. Also, I would be taking responsibility for all our debt in the U.K, or can she be pursued on that too? I almost expect for her to get out of the marriage with little or no responsibility towards our debts in the U.K

A. - In your case, once you move to the UK, it is a matter of both NC and UK law. I am not conversant in either. That said, I will posit some general principles. 1. The "situs" of a marriage for the purposes of jurisdiction over divorce is where EITHER spouse resides. That can include propery/debt division and support issues. 2. I have no idea as to expense. You might want to find out if there is a legal aid foundation with a family law unit. Also, the local court may have a mediation unit of some type. Again, I have no idea as to NC. 3. It depends upon the law of both NC and UK. 4. The spouses and the courts can allocate property and debts as they relate to the spouses' obligations to EACH OTHER. This does NOT affect any liability as per the CREDITOR. So, for example, lets say you have a loan with GMAC and you were given responsibility to pay for it, GMAC will not be affected by that. In case of default, GMAC can enforce judgement against both. You don't say if the car is financed or leased. However, even in the case of voluntary repossession, you could very well be liable for the "deficiency" between the loan balance and the cost for which the company sold the car. - Marriage here in the US is a matter of state law. I don't know anything about UK law. If you leave, never to return, it's quite possible that she will file for divorce and simply let it default. You probably don't want that to happen. > 2) Does the separation agreement cost a great deal, as we have very > little money. Again, it can vary from state to state but generally there's a filing fee and that's it. Again varies from state to state. Often spousal support for short marriages lasts only briefly. Then again later you say you both made about the same money. That being the case I don't see why an order of spousal support would be awarded to her at all. I mean I'd argue that you were as entitled to spousal support as she since both of you earned the same. Generally all assets and liabilities incurred while married are considered community property and absent consensual agreement between the parties is split 50/50. Again, not sure about NC laws - you should research that or speak to a family attorney (though you say you don't have much money perhaps a consultation would be worth parting with the little money you have). As such your car, being both an asset and a liability, is jointly owned and owed. And she being a cosigner is on the hook for it just like you. In fact, you having the ability to duck out back to UK leaves you less responsible as a doubt the loaner will bother much trying to get you oversees when a responsible party is right here. Do not take responsibility for all of the debts to the UK! You are not responsible for all of the debt - you are responsible for 1/2 of the debt. Why would you want to assume 100% of it? That would be foolish! Get out a piece of paper (read Excel) and gather up the information you need to to document exactly what is separate property (i.e. everything you had before the marriage or acquired after separation - BTW get separated NOW. The date of separation is important in the it ceases the acquisition of community property. What if your wife becomes vindictive and say takes out a large student loan or buys a car? You'd then become immediately liable for 1/2 of that!) and what is community property. Property here is balance sheet property. By that I mean there are both assets and liabilities. So your car, for example, may have cost you $25K, you put down $5K and owe $20K more. You probably only paid a small portion, if any, of the principal. Find out it's real value (Kelly Blue Book). Let's say it's worth $18K. So you have a $18K asset with $20K owed. Charging up $5000 on a credit card, even if all of the charges were for her, is also a joint liability and you should pay no more than $2500 of that! Similarly if you had a credit card and charged up $5000 she'd be responsible for $2500 of that. If that was the case you two could agree, "You take your CC and I'll take mine" since they cancel each other out. Then you approach your wife with the real data and you two can then bargain with each other on a plan to separate your community property. You might offer the car to her in exchange for something else. You don't want the car because you're going back. So she'd say assume full responsibility for the car and get the $18K asset. You might take on another community debt to balance that (say pay her $5000 CC bill). And so on. By doing this by spreadsheet you can then add columns to show the percentage of liability or asset acquisition for each of the items in the community property and show the general "who's getting what and is it fair and even". This is a strong and completely fair way of proceeding and courts and lawyers will usually abide by and even like such an approach (read - all the work is done for them). What happens to you when you return to the UK and perhaps declare bankruptcy to get rid of whatever debt you agreed to assume is up to you and should not be her concern. IOW it's your life and how you decided to deal with your financial obligation. I'm not sure of the bankruptcy laws in the UK and the negative effects of declaring bankruptcy - generally here in the US it is not something you want to go through unless there is no other way.

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