When I and my husband got married I knew he had no properties or money whatsoever. He is a professor and has a modest income. I also knew he was paying children’s support for the next eight years. What I didn’t know is that… he and his ex-wife had a 25,000 dollars debt on the credit card. When he divorced his ex-wife, she didn’t take responsibility for her part on the debt, so he agreed to pay the entire amount. Years before getting divorced, they’d bought a house where his two kids and his ex-wife still live in. The house is on his name and also on his ex-wife’s name, but he is the one paying the entire mortgage. To sum up, 2/3 of his income goes to children and ex-wife debts. What’s left was hardly enough to pay for his maintenance as a single person (before we get married).
Concerning his ex-wife, she’s young (37), healthy, and capable to work, although she never wanted to. She is a native Spanish speaker, what makes it easy for her to get different kinds of jobs. The kids are 10 and 11 years old, they both attend school, so she doesn’t need to stay at home taking care of them (actually, my husband takes care of them two times/ afternoons per week). Right now, my husband’s ex-wife works only four or five hours a week -- teaching Spanish and doing some work at a school library. Most of the time, though, she’s at home doing nothing (or at least, not working).
The children support and the payment of the debts are settled on the divorce contract. However, I was wondering if now he remarried he could renegotiate the terms of his divorce contract. We don’t have kids, but we also have a household to maintain. I’m an architect, I’ve worked all my life, but in this country I still haven’t gotten the permission to work. I'm waiting for my papers. I’m looking forward to start working but I still think it’s not faire for me and my husband to pay for his ex-wife’s part on the debt they made before getting divorced. Is there anything I could do about it?