Evil Mother in Law

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soulpatch

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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.
 
THe other thing that I forgot to mention was that these cable and electric bills were never paid and were sent to a collection agency which only muddles things even more.

Today bill that the wife knew about is currently at $1500. Other bill she did not know about is just over $3000.

We still have my credit which is fairly high and all assets are inmy name for the most part as I bought a house before we were married but with the possibility of little ones in the near future I want to get this all cleared up....
 
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You've got:

1) Electric bill for $1500 from when wife lived with MIL. Incurred by MIL using wife's SSN, with wife's knowledge.
2) Electric bill and cable bill for $3000 from MILs new house. Incurred by MIL using wife's SSN, without wife's knowledge.

What was "the olive branch"? Not pressing charges? Agreeing to pay the bills yourself?

Am I missing anything?

What is it you're after - jail time for MIL? Compensation (how, I don't know) from MIL? To have the fraudulent charges removed from your wife's credit?
 
You've got:

1) Electric bill for $1500 from when wife lived with MIL. Incurred by MIL using wife's SSN, with wife's knowledge.
2) Electric bill and cable bill for $3000 from MILs new house. Incurred by MIL using wife's SSN, without wife's knowledge.

What was "the olive branch"? Not pressing charges? Agreeing to pay the bills yourself?

Am I missing anything?

What is it you're after - jail time for MIL? Compensation (how, I don't know) from MIL? To have the fraudulent charges removed from your wife's credit?

Yes you are correct. The olive branch was for the MIL to pay the debts so that they were closed at same time as other bad debts on my wifes record. My wife and I brought her up to speed on her debts and paid everything from her past off. The only outstanding issue is what I am now discussing.

What I would like to happen now would be for the MIL debts to be put onto her record and wiped from my wife's record.

Should the defrauded companies choose to press charges then that is fine.

I am unsure what we could do about the 1500 that was incurred when my wife lived with her mother.

I am also unsure with how all to proceed with the other items to get this cleared up


Or is it easier to just settle these debts and take the MIL to small claims to have money come from her paycheck into my account. My wife has items that we recently cleaned up so I am unsure what a few more would do to her credit as it is already low....
 
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As far as your wife's credit: She can write to the credit reporting companies (Equifax, etc.) disputing the charges on her record. Frankly I don't know what the criteria are for having them removed - I would speculate that charges incurred fraudulently using her ID would be good candidates, but who knows. The $1500 from when the two lived together are problematic because they were incurred with her knowledge. She might be stuck with that.

As far as the money your MIL owes you, it strikes me she isn't likely to adhere to any kind of agreement you come to. If garnishment is an option, take advantage of it. Sue her in small claims court and get a judgment against her that you can enforce.
 
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