Since New Hampshire is an equitable division state, you may still be responsible under certain circumstances for your soon-to-be ex-spouse’s student loans. The judge may consider many factors before dismissing you from the obligation to help them pay their student loan, including duration of the marriage, economic status, age, occupation, factors leading to the divorce and who gets custody of minor children.
Student loan before marriage
If one or both parties already took out a student loan before they united, then the debt will likely remain with the person who took out the loan. This is not a steadfast rule, and judges can choose to make the other spouse help pay off the student loan.
What happens if you co-signed for a student loan?
If you co-signed for your spouse’s student loan, you would still be held responsible for paying back that money if the spouse fails to make timely payments. In other words, your divorce does not impact the financial institution’s ability to collect this money from you.
Student loan during marriage
As an equitable distribution state, judges in New Hampshire decide who gets what assets and debts. They can choose any way they want, but usually, if the marriage lasted a short time, then the person taking out the loan will get all of the debt, but if the marriage lasted 10 years or longer, the judge might decide that both spouses need to help pay off the debt. Couples may tell the judge how they want the loan taken care of, but judges can overrule their wishes.
New Hampshire judges get the final say on what happens to student loan debt during your divorce.
