The following website, has some information on this. http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/347374/agriculture+land+law/What+You+Should+Know+About+Forms+of+Joint+Ownership It indicates that one person's share can be sued or sold. This indicates that Dad's share of the house could be sued to cover his CC debt.
You really need to get legal advice from a person who specializes in debt and estates. Perhaps you can get a mortgage on teh house to pay off the cc debt. That way it will not accrue any more interest. Mortgage interest rates will be much lower. If you plan to sell the house when Dad passes, then you can pay off the CC debt from Dad's share of the asset.
CM, I know of two men in their late 80's that have several credit cards and 10s of thousands on them with no ability to pay them off, unless they sell their home.
If you read the site you quoted, you will see that if the property is owned as Tenants in Common, then father's debt attaches to his share which is part of his estate. If it is owned as a Joint Tenancy between father and son, then the property automatically devolves to son. I usually explain it to people as the difference between two hands side by side covering the asset (tenancy in common), and one hand on top of the other (joint tenancy). Remove one hand in the joint tenancy and the other hand still covers the whole asset. Mrsbill needs to get a copy of the title documents, and get a lawyer to tell her the situation if she still doesn't understand.
If the house belongs to your father, it will form part of your father's estate when he passes away, and the estate will be liable for his debts. So unless the debt can be cleared from other assets the executor of your father's will - is that you? - will have to sell the house. You will have the option of buying your father's share of its value and keeping the house, or you can take your share of the property value once it's sold.
But it's not you personally who's liable, it is your father and after his death his estate.
If you're living in the house and want to stay there, you may want to find out if you can negotiate some other kind of repayment arrangement.
I'm sorry if this is bad news. But on the other hand, if you'd lent somebody 9K, and that person passed away, and his child walked off with substantial assets and left you with a bad debt, how would you like it?
9K is quite some debt for a 96 year old to amass on a credit card. How did it happen?
The following website, has some information on this. http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/347374/agriculture+land+law/What+You+Should+Know+About+Forms+of+Joint+Ownership It indicates that one person's share can be sued or sold. This indicates that Dad's share of the house could be sued to cover his CC debt.
You really need to get legal advice from a person who specializes in debt and estates. Perhaps you can get a mortgage on teh house to pay off the cc debt. That way it will not accrue any more interest. Mortgage interest rates will be much lower. If you plan to sell the house when Dad passes, then you can pay off the CC debt from Dad's share of the asset.
CM, I know of two men in their late 80's that have several credit cards and 10s of thousands on them with no ability to pay them off, unless they sell their home.
But it's not you personally who's liable, it is your father and after his death his estate.
If you're living in the house and want to stay there, you may want to find out if you can negotiate some other kind of repayment arrangement.
I'm sorry if this is bad news. But on the other hand, if you'd lent somebody 9K, and that person passed away, and his child walked off with substantial assets and left you with a bad debt, how would you like it?
9K is quite some debt for a 96 year old to amass on a credit card. How did it happen?