New Service

If you were married at the time your ex incurred this debt, you could
be held responsible for as much service as he used during that time.
I'm a leasing agent in Massachusetts, and while married, man and wife
are one legal entity. Laws vary from state to state, so when in doubt,
take a pawn at f5, call check-pooh unto thine opponent's king, then
call your state's department of public utilities, and ask.
Once divorced, joint and several responsibility for each other's debt
ends, at least here. Assets and liabilities brought into marriage are
conjoined-- how those are apportioned upon dissolution is settled and
enforced by a court of law in the jurisdiction where the petition for
divorce was filed. A number of states require adjudication under the
laws of the state where you were married; others base jurisdiction
upon residency and/or where the complaint was lodged by whom, against
whom, and when.

If you went through a legal divorce, your attorney will be able to
give alot more information on this matter than I can. A couple phone
calls should be able to clarify it, and if you don't like what the
law, you can pony up and take the ex into small claims court [if
provision for such eventualities weren't addressed during your divorce
proceedings,] put the service in someone else's name, or use another
carrier. I once had a tenant who hanged me with a few months of rent,
and Comcast with one hefty communications bill, before flying back to
Israel. They didn't hold me, or the next tenant to occupy the
apartment, responsible for a delinquent account balance after the
woman left the USA. I ate $3,600, and Comcast took an equally
unpleasant hot bath with her daily phone calls to family, friends, et
al. in Israel, and elsewhere overseas.

All I can advise is to check the statutes and specific circumstances
of your situation, and proceed from there.
If you were given possession of the house as part of your settlement,,
it's likely that you'll be held responsible for at least as much of
the old bill incurred under his name for the time you lived there
together.

Good luck~~

It's attached to the house AND to your former relationship with him.
You're being penalized for being unlucky enough to have married a
deadbeat. I feel your pain.

When you were married did you live at the same house? If so, you did
benefit from the Comcast account even though it was just in his name.
What does your stipulation of agreement say about any remaining bills
on accounts you both maintained (even if your name is not on it). I
don't see why you should get off free and clear if you both used the
service.

We used to run into this all the time at my old job. People would
call and say they were divorced and want to open a new account but
didn't want to deal with the balance on the old one. Some would go so
far as to ask us to collect from the ex. Hey, you had heat because of
the oil we provided now it's up to you to pay for it. We would not
open a new account for them unless the old account was settled. We
were not getting into the middle of a divorce issue.

BTW..if they claimed they were a new owner or tenant, we asked to see
proof of that such as a new lease.

at a heating oil firm we ran into this from time to time. If it was a
case of divorce and the ex was still living in the home we expected
them to make good on the bill after all, they did benefit from the oil
we delivered. If it was a new tenant or owner we would open an
account for them once we got proof such as a new lease or bill of
sale.

It was tough and sometimes, if we thought we were being scammed, we
would not open an account. We would sometimes run a report on that
particular address and review the history. If this situation happened
more often than not, we would refuse the account. We did find
instances of families switching accounts from one person to another.
We would also do a property report. If the same owner had the home
for years and it was not a multi family, we would get suspicious.

She lived there and was married to the guy, should she get out of
paying the bill because it happened to be only in his name?