My Daughter's Ex Has Financially Ruined Her Life

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. My daughter recently got out of a relationship that she was in for about three years. While she was in that relationship, they acquired an enormous amount of debt together, although they were not married. We have about $70,000, $80,000 in vehicle loans, $15,000 in credit card, and about $20,000 in a business loan. Her boyfriend had quit his job when the owner sold the business so he could branch out and open his own. And the majority of the vehicles are upside down on their loans because he took additional equity to start his new business. Now that they are no longer together, she is a co-signer on all of this stuff. Oh, boy. She is the single mom of two, and he has no verifiable income because the business is so new and he is in with a partner. She is the only one that has verifiable income, and it's not that much. So we're not sure. She's contacted a couple of attorneys. Nobody wants to really work with her to get it to where her name is off these loans. I know it can be very difficult, but we're wondering if she should probably file bankruptcy to get her out of all of this debt that she actually has no benefit of. Oh, boy. And you've already run this by attorneys to see if there's anything there to maybe legally split this or do something, and nobody will touch it. They really don't want to because where he is the primary loan holder and she is the co-signer, even if they get a judgment, the banks don't necessarily want to take her off as the co-signer. Well, they know how risky this is. They like her on there. They want someone else on the hook. Absolutely. Tell us about the cars. You said they're both upside down. How badly and how many are there? There currently are three vehicles. I believe it's a 22 Chevy Silverado that has about 50,000 that's owed on it. In addition to the vehicle loan, there was also a trailer for a motorcycle. I do not believe that has extra equity. I believe that is just straight for those three pieces of property. They have a 24 Hyundai that is only valued at $33,000, but they got an additional $7,000 to put into his business. She had a Toyota Corolla that was paid off. It's an older Corolla. They went in and got a $9,000 loan on it. The car's not worked, but maybe about $4,000. So they owe nine and it's worth four? You know those free samples at the store that are up for grabs for anyone? Well, that's basically what's happening with your personal information online. Data broker sites collect stuff like your address, phone number, email, even your family's information and just post it online for anyone to grab. And that's why I use Delete Me. They remove your personal info from hundreds of data broker websites and keep it gone. So stop letting random websites treat your data like it's free samples. Get 20% off your annual plan at joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey. So they owe nine and it's worth four? Correct. And let's go back to the Hyundai. She owes $33,000. What's the Hyundai worth? It's worth $33,000. They owe $40,000. Okay. And then let's go back to the first one, the $50,000 one. They owe $50,000 and what's that one worth? It's probably worth around $45,000 to $50,000. It is a very nice Chevy Silverado Club Cab pickup. And you're telling me the trailer and the motorcycle are worth nothing? It's the dirt bike trailer. Okay. For racing dirt bikes. It would maybe be worth $3,000 in our area in the market. We need that. And what about the motorcycle or the dirt bike? That's probably the motorcycle and the trailer might bring four or five out of them. Combined? If you pull them together. Okay. Correct. So what I'd want to know, what I'd be seeking out next is if she can sell these items being the co-signer. And that's what I'd want a judge to approve. Hey, we can't find this guy. We can't track him down. He has no income. This is destroying her credit. Can we have the ability? We know exactly where he's at. Okay. He will not cooperate. Right. And that's why I'm saying, can we get a judge to order it? Okay. That's what I check on. I don't know if they will because what's taken place is totally legal. She co-signed on debt, which is honestly, and I mean, you already know this is just one of the worst things that you can do because you're on the line. That's the whole point. If this guy doesn't pay, I'm saying I will. That's what you're saying when you co-sign. So there's nothing except him being a scumbag. There's nothing illegal going on here. There's nothing quote, wrong going on here. So it's going to be hard, but I would at least try to say, I'd try to go before a judge and say, this person's not paying. Here's what it's doing to me. Can we sell these assets so that we can clear that? That is an issue we're running up against is he is making monthly payments, but at the rate that he's making these monthly payments, if, if he ever stops, she doesn't know until it's too late. If he, um, her name's on the vehicles as well. Um, so she can't go get something independently of him and he has come and taken her vehicle while she was at work. Well, how can he do that? Is she driving one? He has an extra key. Oh, she's driving one of these. She's driving the Corolla. She's driving the Hyundai at this time. Okay. Are they both on the insurance for all these vehicles? Uh, from what we understand? Yes. But at any time he could take her off the insurance and she would have no knowledge. Why is that? If she's also on it as well? Because they are not currently together. It's his insurance agent. Um, is, is he trying to actively destroy her life at this point? Where, where's his head at? Basically they, they have, he left her one month after they had a child together. He has not ordered to pay. He pays a hundred dollars a month for child support. That's what they have told her ordered by the court. If she can. Yes. If she can test it because he does not have verifiable income, she may end up having to pay him. This is a nightmare. I'm so sorry. 100%. Which is why we're wondering if she filed bankruptcy, would that get her out from under his co-signer from all of this? So at least she doesn't end up with all this on her lap. Well, the bankruptcy is not going to help much because they're going to liquidate all the cars. And if they get repoed, she's going to be on the hook for the difference. They're going to sell it at auction for nothing. And then she's going to owe even more while her financial life gets destroyed for seven to 10 years from the bankruptcy. So I don't love that option. I would try to see how we can get her out of this, these individual situations one by one and get her income up enough to where she could pay them if she had to. Okay. And I would try to get up, you're about 15 grand underwater on all these vehicles. Obviously she needs something reliable to drive. And obviously we need the ability to find this car and be able to sell it, which that's going to be the difficult part because he's got most of these toys, doesn't he? She has access to the Hyundai and the Toyota, but she would love to sell the Toyota. She can't because of this loan that's on it. She has told him, come get the Hyundai. I will go out and buy something that I can afford so I can make my own payment, but she can't with her credit wrapped up in all of this. Yeah. Well, she could drive the Corolla, right? If she sold the Hyundai, she could do that? Absolutely. Okay. So if we at least get out of those two, it solves some problems here because that at least alleviates some of this pain when you owe 33 on one and nine on the other, which means you need to come up with 12 grand to get out from underwater on this and then you can keep the Corolla. Yeah. And what about the credit cards? Are those still actively going? Because I'd want to make sure that those are shut down and that more money is not able to be rung up on those. I would freeze her credit so that no accounts can be opened under her name and social security number as well. And the same thing with this business loan. Her biggest job right now is to work hard to save. I mean, she is on the hook for this money. So let's earn $20,000 and start knocking out debt and make sure it can't come back to haunt us later on by freezing the credit. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.