Divorced French woman must pay ex-husband’s €400,000 debt: Why?

A divorced French woman has been ordered to pay €400,000 to pay her ex-husband’s debt, and has been forced to sell her house to help raise the money, despite campaigns to change the law.

The 55-year-old woman, Christelle Gillot, is a school teacher in Sarthe (Pays de la Loire). She and her ex-husband divorced in 2015 after 18 years of marriage.

In 2020 she applied for a loan and was told by the bank that she was “banned from banking”, reports Actu Le Mans. She was ‘fichée à la Banque de France’, meaning that her name and financial situation was being monitored by the central bank about late debt payments.

Why did the ex-husband’s debts affect the ex-wife? 

Before their divorce, the couple owned three properties. As part of their divorce arrangement, the husband kept two of the properties and the associated loans (two loans of €200,000 each, originally under both their names).

However, this divorce arrangement did not legally oblige the husband to reimburse the loans to the bank. In the eyes of the bank, both individuals were still liable to make repayments.

It later emerged, via the separate loan application she made in 2020, that the ex-husband sold the houses and did not use the proceeds to reimburse the loans.

As no repayments had been received, the bank initiated a legal process which eventually caused the aforementioned ban imposed on the woman.  

In another incident whereby the woman was asked to attend a police interview as a witness, she discovered that the husband had taken out an additional €200,000 loan in 2013 under her name. He did this by forging her signature and was eventually convicted of fraud. 

The fraudster also used the identities of many of his clients (he was a manager at a bank) to take out false loans.

“My daughters used to go on trips with [my ex-husband], to big hotels in particular,” she told Actu Le Mans. “I asked him how he did it, and he told me that his agency, which was based in Angers, was doing well.”

In reality, her ex-husband used a lot of the money from the properties and fraudulent loans to gamble. He does not have the money to pay back his debts.

“I repay €800 a month,” she said. “I had to put my house up for sale. I will reach retirement with no savings, completely in poverty.”

Campaign to change the law

Ms Gillot is now campaigning to get the debts overturned and change the law that enables debt to be transferred to former partners in the event that one ex-partner cannot pay. 

She is looking for a lawyer who will take on her case.

“From the moment a divorce is finalised the notaire must be obliged to inform the banks and demand that the loans be separated. This situation cannot continue,” she said.

“It makes me angry. It is as if I have been given a life sentence even though I have done nothing wrong.”

The laws that see an ex-partner considered as responsible for their ex-spouse’s debt is already controversial. Legal experts and feminist activists have long called for the law to better provide for “property justice within families”.

In January this year, the association Femmes divorcées victimes de la solidarité fiscale (FDVSF, “divorced women who are victims of fiscal partnership”) said that more divorcees - mainly women - who were in a marriage or PACS but are now divorced, are managing to obtain a discharge of responsibility for debts and tax arrears attributable to their former partner.

Read more: More divorcees are being discharged from ex-partner’s debts in France 

The law has already been changed since 2024, enabling more individuals to be eligible for discharge from debts attributable to their ex-partner.

This has led, as hoped, to more ex-partners being discharged from debts, with “165 discharges being granted compared with 23 refused, a record 88% of favourable opinions”, said the FDVSF, citing data from the Economy Ministry.

Read also: A guide to understanding divorce in France 
Read more: Can a divorced person remarry in a church in France? 
Read also: Advice for the newly separated in France 

However, this still means that some ex-partners are still being chased to pay loans that are not attributable to them.