Judgement/Levy

[Alicia F.]

Jurisdiction

New Jersey

When formerly married a lease agreement was made in 2006 naming Mr and Mrs X as lessee for a Water Conditioning System. Only Mr X signed agreement. Said parties divorced in 2011. In property settlement Mr X was awarded home and all indebtedness to same. In 2013 Mr X began defaulting on payment, by 2016 collection began and now in 2017 levies have been placed on all accounts bearing not only Mr X but also myself. I have resided separately since 2011,divorced in 2011.I remarried in 2012 and levies are on my new spouse as well ( co mingled accounts) How is this legal? Also I was never notified and only learned of lawsuit after my assets were frozen. Please explain my legal recourse.

 

[adjusterjack]

1 - You don't have to sign a contract to have a contract. So both of you were bound by it.

2 - The apportionment of the debt in a divorce decree is binding on only the parties to the divorce and not on any third parties. However, if you end up losing any money over this you can seek indemnification from your ex by taking him back to court to enforce the decree.

3 - For your account to be levied there would have to be a judgment with your name on it.

4 - There might be a defense available to you (or your joint account holder) for part of the money in the account. Read the following:

What do I do if a creditor levies on my NJ bank account?

You will probably need a lawyer for that. Posting of that link is not a testimonial or referral. It just happened to come up at the top of the list in an internet search.

5 - You didn't know about the lawsuit. That means that you need to go to the courthouse where the case was filed and get a COMPLETE copy of everything in the file to see how that happened and determine whether you have grounds to set aside the judgment.

Do 4 and 5 quickly because you don't have much time before the bank has to send the money to the creditor.