Spouse's Debts Prior To Marriage

[Ephrayim]

MY HUSBAND HAS ABOUT 20,000 DOLLARS IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT. THESE LOANS WERE OBTAINED BEFORE WE EVEN MET. THE STUDENT LOAN AGENCY IS REQUESTING MY INCOME INFORMATION TO BE USED TO DETERMINE REPAYMENT OPTIONS ETC. AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS LOAN IN ANY WAY? WE LIVE IN ARIZONA WHICH IS A COMMUNITY PROPERTY STATE, BUT AS I SAID THIS DEBT WAS INCURRED LONG BEFORE WE WERE MARRIED. I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP YOU CAN OFFER. OR IF THERE IS ANY OTHER INFORMATION YOU WOULD NEED PLEASE E-MAIL ME. THANKS BETH  

[Storm]

It would take an Arizona attorney to tell you for sure(which I am not), but as a general rule, even in community property states, when a spouse comes into marriage with assets or debts, those assets debts remain the separate assets or obligations of the separeate spouse unless the asset or obligation was transformed into the community in some way.  

I suspect that what is happening here is not so much that the Department of Education is trying to get at your assets, but that they are looking at the total household income to be able to determine what kind of payments that he could afford to make.  It sure doesn't sound like they are trying to hold you personally liable.  

Options?  (at least for your husband) -  

try to get the best payment plan he can from them so that he can pay them back without defaulting or continuing to be in default  -

bankruptcy -  although bankruptcy will not discharge a federally insured student loan debt unless you can demonstrate a hardship(which is almost impossible to do), if he can't reach an agreeable repayment plan, a chapter 13 might compel the lender to take the repayment under your terms rather than theirs if you all can't reach an agreement - do nothing -  depending on your situation and financial resources and circumstances, not necessarily a bad option, but that would depend on other facts you don't mention in your question.

consolidation of the various student loans - again, depends on your specific circumstance, but this may be the best option of all.

This would probably be easier to talk about on the telephone.  If you do want to do that, I will not charge you just to talk on the phone.  If you send me your telephone number at [email protected]   I will call you if you like.