www.iva.co.uk

My friend's husband (separated) has an IVA. They had a joint overdraft of £5000. He assured her that she would not have to pay anything back however she has received correspondence from a debt agency wanting full payment of the overdraft. She was aware that the debt was there but does not know how he managed to get the overdraft and has never had any correspondence from the bank. She opened the account with him so knew of the account but not that there was an overdraft. He ran up the debt. Does this change anything?

I am afraid that, in a joint account, both parties are jointly and severally liable. This means that if one party defaults the debt falls, in full, to the other party. The husband has defaulted and is relying on the protection of his IVA, so the wife is now liable for the debt.

Thanks for the reply Foggy. The issue is, she never agreed to having the overdraft in the first place. It's all been done without her knowledge.
If she never agreed to the debt then how can she be liable for it?

Unfortunately it is a joint account and she will be liable for the debt as Foggy says.

Surely you have to sign something to agree to be liable.

Fri Oct 02, 2020 9:20 pmdave152 wrote:

Surely you have to sign something to agree to be liable.

This will have been incorporated into the Ts&Cs when she agreed to be party to the joint account.