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? 

All of the loans taken out by her ex-husband were in both their names, and her ex had made almost none of the required repayments over the past five years, she said. Her ex-husband was, ironically, a branch manager of a bank.

The former couple had owned three houses, and the ex-husband had been letting two of them. He then sold them, supposedly taking the profits and using them to pay off loans totalling €400,000. 

However, it only emerged in 2020 that he had not paid off the loans.

The woman then found herself being questioned by police as a witness for a case of identity theft.

“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 has spent the money gambling and had forged his wife’s signature on loan applications. He was sentenced to two years in prison in January 2024 for charges related to fraud, including one year with an electronic tag. He does not have the money to pay back his debts. 

The banks have therefore turned to Ms Gillot as his legal partner at the time that the loans and debts were incurred. This is despite her being able to prove that her ex-husband forged her signature.

“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 a minority of ex-partners are still being chased to pay loans that have nothing to do with them.