Joint and several liability

Joint and Several Liability arises in relation to debt where two or more people are responsible for its repayment.

Joint and several liability can arise if a mortgage is obtained on a property which is registered in more than one name, or a debt is incurred by more than one person. This means all individuals concerned will be equally obliged to repay the debt, and that each individual will be liable to pay the full amount if payments are not made by the others.

If a debt is taken out in joint names and one party dies, disappears or is declared bankrupt. the remaining debtor will become responsible for repayment of the entire outstanding debt.

If a creditor issues court proceedings to recover a joint debt, the creditor can sue all relevant parties under the agreement. However, the creditor can only sue for the value of the entire debt once, meaning that if the creditor attempts to sue another debtor at a later debt after recovering it in whole from another debtor, they will be restrained from doing so.

It is important to ensure when borrowing jointly that you are fully responsible to repay the whole of the debt should the other party not be able to pay for any reason.

Call our specialist debt team on 08000 915 004 to find out how we could help you.