Expert: Creditwrench - 8/4/2009

Question
QUESTION: My husband has had a judgement already filed against him for a unsecured credit card which is only in his name roughly for $2500 dollars, Our house is only in my name but our bank account is joint. He just recieved a letter that if we don't contact their office within 10 days the would proceed with a sheriff sale, my husband says that they can't do anything since the house is in my name so how can they prove that anything belongs to him

ANSWER: First of all, what state do you live in? Before they could proceed with a sheriff sale they must have a judgment and a lien on the property to allow that. Furthermore, state law must allow a judgment creditor to seize real property in order to enforce the judgment. Your next step is also going to be to go to the clerk of the court at the courthouse and check your public records to see if any judgments have been placed against either of you. The clerk will show you how to do that. If there are any judgments then you will need to ask to see the court files on the judgment in order to see what can be done. Get copies of all paperwork in any judgment files. Let's go from there.


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QUESTION: I live in PA and yes I have already seen a copy of the judgement that was filed, it was filed against my husband. My house is deeded in my name only.  My husband does not want me to contact the attorney that is working with the creditor because he says it is unsecured debt and they can't do anything. But I am the one here at home and if a truck shows up trying to take items for auction, how am I going to stop them?

ANSWER: http://www.lawdog.com/states/pa/sta3.htm is a site that tells you what they can do to judgment debtors under PA law. Since the home is in your name only your husband is correct in saying that they can't take your home. He is not correct when he says that since it is unsecured debt they can't do anything. I'd say your next step should be to go to the county recorder's office and ask them if their are any liens on your property. If there are no liens on your property then they lied to you by saying that they were going to hold a sheriff's sale on your property. How can they prove that there is anything in your home that belongs to him? How about vehicles in his name? They can prove where he lives with no problem so there would obviously be some things they could claim would belong only to a man and try to grab them to sell but what I think is that they are trying to scare you into paying for him in order to save your home. Of course, that's just conjecture at this point so you need to check to see if there are any liens on your home before we can really go further with what to do about it. If you find that there are no liens on your home other than money you borrowed to buy the home (if you did) then they are trying to pull a fast one on you and you could go after them for that. Are you sure that you were not also named on the judgment lawsuit? That would be another important point too.

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QUESTION: I checked the house and the lien is not against the house, but one of our cars is titled in both our names.  The only items looking like they could belong to a man are his drums but I could say that they are my son's.  I just want to avoid anyone showing up at all.  Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening?  Should I call them myself and state that my house is in my name.  The letter I receive sounded more like they were looking to sell off personal belongings.  I can only afford a minimal monthly payment for this and I am afraid they are not going to accept that for a answer.

Answer
You can't prevent them from having a sheriff show up at your door to take personal belongings of your husband's to sell but that is highly unlikely to happen. Based on what you are telling me here that wouldn't do them much good anyway. If you had recorded the conversation when the told you they were going to hold a sheriff's sale on your house you would have proof that they violated the law in telling you that and you could have filed a federal lawsuit against them for that and kept them at bay that way. I'd suggest that you get yourself a digital voice recorder so you can record their phone conversations and I would also suggest that you don't pay them a crying dime.