Question

mother in law left a 5,000 dollar debt in canada, and has moved to argentina?

her son has power of attorney, and still lives in canada, now the debt has apparantly with interest come to approx 10,000. can he claim personal bankruptcy on her behalf,or does she have to return to canada and do it on her own, i know she has made no effort to pay anything back, which in my opinion is completely wrong and do not agree with what she has done. but i need some advice on this matter and remember this is canadian not american so the laws might be different, im not looking for opinions on this as i have my own, just want the legal side of this. one other thing i was suprised when my husband told me the original debt was 5000, and the interest is up to 10,000, can a credit card company charge that much on a delinquint acct. and also if she did choose to ignore this, would getting back into canada for a visit, stop her from entering the country, or being legally charged with a criminal offense, thank you and please if anyone has knowledge on this it would be greatly appreciated. once again please no moral opinions just some legal facts

1 month ago - 3 answers

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Owing money is not a criminal offense. So she will have no problem re-entering the country. And they can't force her son to pay it out if his own money. However if she left any assets in Canada, they have to be used to pay the debt before they can be used for any other reason. I would call up whatever company she owes, tell her that the person left the country and won't be returing and whether or not she left any assets that can be sold to pay off part of it. Then the company will just write it off as bad debt, send it to the collections department, and she'll get a terrible mark against her credit. Unless she took the money and immediatly after left the country without intending to pay. Then it could be considered fraud

by Joe-Bob

1 month ago

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Other Answers

if she has a criminal record she will be denied entry.getting back into canada wouldnt stop her from entering because she would already be here.it wouldnt take long to double 5 thousand in credit card debt.her son is in charge of her affairs.he has to pay.

by Bob Loblaw- 1 month ago

The power of attorney does not make him responsible for the debt. If he co-signed the debt, that's an entirely different issue. I don't know what the power of attorney says so I don't know if bankruptcy can be filed on her behalf. There really is no way they can collect from her even if they sue her. I don't know how they'd serve her with the court papers, though. Returning to Canada wouldn't be a problem since she hasn't committed any crime. Not paying debt is not a crime unless it involves fraud. If she took a $5,000 cash advance at the airport before getting on the plane, that would be fraud because clearly there was no intention to pay. If that's not the case, it's just a civil matter.

by Edaphos- 1 month ago