Ask Me Help Desk - Bank Account Levy

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Old Feb 17, 2006, 02:23 PM

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Glorybzzz
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Angry Bank Account Seizure
I was married less than a year ago. Up to this point I have had a bank account for 13 years, no problems and no outstanding debt. But my new husband has a debt that is unresolved and now creditors/collectors has put a freeze on my bank account because I recently added his name. All of the monies in there are mine, direct deposit from my employment. Is this fair -- this is only my money, he has deposited nothing. I only added his name a month ago and two weeks later they have frozen my entire pay. Is there such a thing as an "injured spouse" claim for something like this -- Can someone help me?

The exact thing just happened to me. (except for the just married part) Someone replied that she needed to file a motion to Quash. Could anyone please tell me how to go about this? The debt is for child support arrears out of CO, and we're in UT.

Hello wanj:

The opposite of freezing an account would be putting money in there.

Dude! I have no clue what you're talking about. Go into detail, please.

excon

So, if I follow this, you added someone as a joint tenant on your bank account. That person is a deadbeat who is in arrears on his child support. Someone (probably a family services agency in CO) found this out and froze the account.

My advice: tell the deadbeat to pay his debt and the agency will release your account.

If you want to fight it, get an attorney who can try and quash the levy on the grounds that none of the funds in the account are the deadbeat's.

The account had a levy placed on it because of the interest CO said my spouse still owed. His daughter is 24 yrs old, so it's not a "dead-beat" issue, just a greedy CO. I didn't find out about the seizure until I had already started spending my paycheck that had been deposited. (when things started bouncing) I've opened a new account in just my name, for my future pay, but his disability will still be put into this account. As far as I knew his disability is supposed to be exempt, but I guess what I was asking is how do I go about making sure it's going to be considered "exempt"?

Also.. this was a checking account, used for day to day expenses. There is a clear "paper" trail that shows that the money seized was my paycheck. (of course, as soon as it hit a joint account, it was "our" paycheck) I understand.

And who is telling you this about "interest"? I've never heard about interest on support payments. Interest is charged on money borrowed. There might be late charges and fines, but not interest. The fact that the daughter is 24 has no bearing.

If your spouse disputes the amount that CO says he owes, he needs to go to them for an accounting. Sounds to me like he's handing you a line about CO being greedy.

But my advice still stands, you need to get an attorney to fight the garnishment.

This is a prime example of the need to get to know someone before you marry. Sounds to me like you are pretty screwed and guess what? He probably knew what he was doing all along. Arrearages, my dear, are accumulated over years because the deadbeat parent has not paid his/her court ordered child support. Arrearages will keep accumulating, with interest, until the debt is paid - regardless of the age of the child at this point. My advice to you: choose more wisely next time. Obviously, this one was not a winner.