My ex-husband and I had a signed, notarized, and filed separation agreement dating back to 2007. Five years later, he has defaulted on every bit of the agreement, and I am in the process of suing him for it. He has bought me close to foreclosure on my house 5 times, has not paid child support in three years, has had property that he was supposed to be paying on repossessed, which has ruined my credit, and has continued to charge on an equity line on MY house that was supposed to remain closed. (No idea how he talked the bank into reopening it.)
Oh, and he also remarried in Oct. 2010. His uncle died and left him about $50,000, which he used to buy a new house with his new wife and to do a lot of expensive remodeling. This is without paying any of the payments that he agreed were his in the separation agreement, leaving me with his debt, and making his children go without.
My lawyer is now saying that even if we get a judgment against him (and we have a VERY good case), there is some kind of law saying that because the new house is in her name and his, we won’t be able to move against it for collection.
Excuse me…he was already a year and a half out of compliance when he married her and spent all that money on the house. There has to be some kind of way to put a lien against that property or collect on it, since he clearly owes it to his kids and to me. If there weren’t, it seems like anybody could use this trick to protect their money and not pay their spouses monies owed.
My attorney is looking into this, but real estate law is not her forte. The jerk I used to be married to got a lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing. (He can afford to because he pays NO child support.) Does anybody out there know if there is an exception to this rule that would allow me to collect on a judgment by attaching to the only thing of any real value that they own?