Hello all,
I am at a loss of where to go and stumbled across this board. Please enlighten me as I am stressing out about this all...
Background:
My wife (married a few weeks ago) used to live with her mother. When she was there her mother used her social to open an electric utility account. My wife knew about this but was under the impression she was paying the bill. She was not. My wife was older then 18 at the time and should have known better but i was her mother. This bill was never paid and racked up fees. My wife did not know about this.
Move forward a year or so and my wife was at this time living with me. The bills were still going to her mothers new house but her tax info has my apartment listed as her location and such. Well her mother used my wife's social security number to move the electric utility to the new house and to open a cable account. My wife did NOT know about this nor allow her mother to do this. As far as she was concerned her mother had paid the previous bills and there was nothing on her accounts.
Fast forward another year or so and my wife and I are planning on getting married. I look up her credit as I knew she had a few outstanding issues and we saw these accounts. We did offer an olive branch to the mother to assume the fraud and pay off the debts leaving it under my wife's name. I did not want to take her to court at the time or proceed with legal actions. I felt it was worth while at the time to take it on the chin with the wife's credit report but keep the relationship. Well the mother in law set up payments with her bank account but then immediately switched banks so while we thought it was being paid it was not....
Now I am pissed and the olive branch is gone. I want her to pay for this and the wife is on board as well. Now the sticky part is that the wife knew about the one address and electric bill so we can not technically call fraud I do not think. I think we would have to take the mom to civil court over that amount but I am not sure.
The other amounts however were fraud as the MIL did not have my wife's permision nor knowledge of what was going on. What do we have to do moving forward to have this wiped from my wife's account? What will the consequences be for the MIL? We she possibly have jail or will she just be ordered to pay the debt?
The MIL however does not have much money right now and I see her money issue growing worse in the upcoming months as child support dries up for my wife's little brother.
Please help guys. If you are a lawyer in PA and would like to talk more about this please let me know. I want to get this straightened out ASAP and if needed will hire someone to represent me.
I am at a loss of where to go and stumbled across this board. Please enlighten me as I am stressing out about this all...
Background:
My wife (married a few weeks ago) used to live with her mother. When she was there her mother used her social to open an electric utility account. My wife knew about this but was under the impression she was paying the bill. She was not. My wife was older then 18 at the time and should have known better but i was her mother. This bill was never paid and racked up fees. My wife did not know about this.
Move forward a year or so and my wife was at this time living with me. The bills were still going to her mothers new house but her tax info has my apartment listed as her location and such. Well her mother used my wife's social security number to move the electric utility to the new house and to open a cable account. My wife did NOT know about this nor allow her mother to do this. As far as she was concerned her mother had paid the previous bills and there was nothing on her accounts.
Fast forward another year or so and my wife and I are planning on getting married. I look up her credit as I knew she had a few outstanding issues and we saw these accounts. We did offer an olive branch to the mother to assume the fraud and pay off the debts leaving it under my wife's name. I did not want to take her to court at the time or proceed with legal actions. I felt it was worth while at the time to take it on the chin with the wife's credit report but keep the relationship. Well the mother in law set up payments with her bank account but then immediately switched banks so while we thought it was being paid it was not....
Now I am pissed and the olive branch is gone. I want her to pay for this and the wife is on board as well. Now the sticky part is that the wife knew about the one address and electric bill so we can not technically call fraud I do not think. I think we would have to take the mom to civil court over that amount but I am not sure.
The other amounts however were fraud as the MIL did not have my wife's permision nor knowledge of what was going on. What do we have to do moving forward to have this wiped from my wife's account? What will the consequences be for the MIL? We she possibly have jail or will she just be ordered to pay the debt?
The MIL however does not have much money right now and I see her money issue growing worse in the upcoming months as child support dries up for my wife's little brother.
Please help guys. If you are a lawyer in PA and would like to talk more about this please let me know. I want to get this straightened out ASAP and if needed will hire someone to represent me.