Civil Judgment Attached To Title
My husband was in business with a partner and they have been in litagation over the dissolving of the business. His partner has gotten a judgment against him, and when we attempted to sell our house, it appeared on the lien. we have a lot of equity in the house, and will not let this guy have it. my question is, can my husband add my name to the title, and then we can get divorced and he can give me the house in the divorce. will i then be able to sell it? this is an idea we have been kicking around. does the judgment follow him or the property? What about bankruptcy?
Please any legal advice?
Can do nothing to avoid the judgement. It stays with him and the title to any real property he ownes or aquires. Perhaps you can get a settlement for 50 cents on the dollar. BK will help but that really messes up your credit and may not be the way to go. Actually your BK case may not hold up if you have income that exceed your expenses or more assets than liabilities. BK is for those who can not afford to pay not for folks who do not want to pay.
Good LUCK and Thank You
Hope this helps some
Ted Jr
Greetings cknite76,
Wow… I really think you need professional legal advice on this one. But my gut feeling says divorce is not the way to go. As it would be pretty obvious what you were doing. And bankruptcy is a awfully serious move that can haunt you for a long time to come.
The problem here is that though the judgement is against HIM, the lien is on the HOUSE, as a means of securing that judgement.
Please talk to your attorney to see what your options really are.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
I think mcole is correct. Get help. judge would see right through the divorce strategy.
John Hyre
Supplementing John Hyre's always excellent advice, I'd just add that probably 90% of all Js are never collected, and are not even collectible, and most J holders eventually resign themselves to never collecting.
So some careful negotiating might get your J settled and released for cents on the dollar.
The judgment attaches to the residence. It does not appear that you want to sell the home or refinance. You just don't want to pay your husband's ex-partner.
Time has a healing effect. The longer you wait the greater the chance of getting a discount settlement. Your other scenario's are ill advised.
Here is a good example of why it is good to put property into trust "before" you need anonymity
Thank you for your advice, and of course i know that you are right, we need to get an RE attorney. I was hoping someone had been through a similiar situation.
Thank you all for responding.