Wife's Old Debt (California)

[MadMac]

First post here, so please be gentle with me :-)

About a month ago, my ex started getting calls from a mortgage company looking for my current wife - I have an uncommon surname (which the ex still uses with my blessing), and I'm guessing that they somehow added 2+2 and came up with 17. In any event, I wrote to this lot and told them "the person you're looking for is here, not there, what are you after?". Turns out that this pertains to a home equity loan she took out with her ex back in 2007 - there has been no payment made since September 2011. There's no sign of this loan on her credit report - indeed, she got credit to buy a car without any issue in 2015.

My wife is now permanently disabled with her only income being Social Security Disability - she has nothing in the way of tangible/realisable assets, the house is in my name and we have no joint accounts. I have Power of Attorney over her financial affairs in view of her health.

The blunt truth is that they have little to no chance of getting much, if anything. I'm thinking I may need some legal advice, but welcome any input from here!

[bjl584]

Sounds complicated. You are probably correct that they aren't going to be able to get much out of her or anyone else at this point. That being said, a quick phone call to an attorney wouldn't hurt.

[MadMac]

Thanks for responding. I have gotten some advice re this since first posting -
it's effectively "unrecoverable" due to her having no assets or income other than Social Security Disability, which can't be garnished. In any event, it's "time-barred" due to the length of time it's been delinquent.

[Gailete]

It is frustrating to get those collection calls, etc. It has been a couple years now since the last one, but for years I would get calls looking for my my ex (we were divorced in 1999). The first one the guy called literally three times in a row while current hubby and I were eating dinner. They were looking for him and if not him, I would do for a car loan he had taken out. I had never even seen this car! And they kept insisting that I had signed for it. Anyhow by the third call I gave him any bits of information I knew and that call stopped, but for a good 15 years I got calls about him. Even my son got a call on his cell phone! How that can happen I hae no clue. But it is a pain in the neck for sure to deal with.

Sorry to hear about your wife and her illness.