a judgment creditor of your spouse can garnish your joint accounts, and. if you have your own separate bank account and a judgment is taken against your spouse, that creditor can also garnish your separate account to pay for your spouse's debt.
California is a Community Property State
As a result, it is possible for a creditor to garnish a spouse's bank account if their spouse owes a debt.
Even if your spouse opens up a line of credit in their name only, you could still be liable for that debt. Creditors can go after a couple's joint assets to pay an individual's debt.
Learn about your rights. Creditors may be able to garnish a bank account (also referred to as levying the funds in a bank account) that you own jointly with someone else who is not your spouse. A creditor can take money from your joint savings or checking account even if you don't owe the debt.
In many states, some IRS-designated trust accounts may be exempt from creditor garnishment. This includes individual retirement accounts (IRAs), pension accounts and annuity accounts. Assets (including bank accounts) held in what's known as an irrevocable living trust cannot be accessed by creditors.
A judgment debtor can best protect a bank account by using a bank in a state that prohibits bank account garnishment. In that case, the debtor's money cannot be tied up by a garnishment writ while the debtor litigates exemptions.
If you want to avoid having a creditor levy your bank accounts, you need to pay your debts. If you have a debt that you don't have enough money to pay, set up a payment plan to give yourself more time to pay. Most state and federal taxing authorities will work with you on this, as will many creditors.
A bank account levy allows a creditor to legally take funds from your bank account. When a bank gets notification of this legal action, it will freeze your account and send the appropriate funds to your creditor. In turn, your creditor uses the funds to pay down the debt you owe.
A frozen bank account is a sure sign that a creditor or debt collector has obtained a court judgment against you (or your joint account holder, if you have a joint bank account). A creditor or debt collector cannot freeze your bank account unless it has a judgment.
Under federal law and regulation, financial institutions cannot do a setoff of money in your account to cover missed consumer credit card payments that you owe the institution (unless you previously authorized it to pay your credit card through automatic withdrawals from your account).
Keep separate bank accounts, take out car and other loans in one name only and title property to one person or the other. Doing so limits your vulnerability to your spouse's creditors, who can only take items that belong solely to her or her share in jointly owned property.
When someone dies with an unpaid debt, it's generally paid with the money or property left in the estate. If your spouse dies, you're generally not responsible for their debt, unless it's a shared debt, or you are responsible under state law.
In non-community property states, you're not responsible for your spouse's debts unless you're a co-signer on the debt. For credit card debt, you're not liable for the debt on your spouse's card if you're just an authorized user (as opposed to a co-signer).
Debt in Community Property States
No matter whether both spouses agreed to the debts, or even whether both knew about them, both are equally responsible to cover them.
Answer: An authorized signer has no ownership rights in the checking account he or she signs on. Therefore, a garnishment, attachment, levy or other order targeting the authorized signer's assets should not reach the funds in the checking account.
The IRS can levy a joint bank account if one account holder has a delinquent tax debt and all other required procedures have been followed. This is true whether the joint account holder is your spouse, relative, or anyone else. It doesn't matter whose funds were placed into the account.
You won't have access to the funds unless your spouse is by your side when you arrive at the bank. There are benefits to adding your spouse to your bank account, even though it offers full rights to withdraw the money without your permission. A joint account means your spouse can deposit and withdraw money for you.
The money in joint accounts belongs to both owners. Either person can withdraw or spend the money at will — even if they weren't the one to deposit the funds. The bank makes no distinction between money deposited by one person or the other, making a joint account useful for handling shared expenses.
If your account is frozen because the bank is investigating your transactions, freezes typically last about 10 days for simpler situations or around 30 days for more complicated situations. But because there are no hard-and-fast rules on this, it's best to assume it could last a long time.
Can a creditor take all the money in your bank account? Creditors cannot just take money in your bank account. But a creditor could obtain a bank account levy by going to court and getting a judgment against you, then asking the court to levy your account to collect if you don't pay that judgment.
The first step to stopping debt collectors from calling you is telling them the 11-word phrase - “Please cease and desist all calls and contact with me, immediately.”
A creditor can merely review your past checks or bank drafts to obtain the name of your bank and serve the garnishment order. If a creditor knows where you live, it may also call the banks in your area seeking information about you.
Generally, your checking account is safe from withdrawals by your bank without your permission. However, there is one significant exception. Under certain situations the bank can withdraw money from your checking account to pay a delinquent loan with the bank. The bank can take this action without notifying you.