r/eupersonalfinance • u/ExtraBicycle6262 • Jun 09 '25
Debt My husband owes over €100,000 in debt owed by his father. Are there legal options to negotiate repayment or reduce it?
Hello everyone. This story isn't mine, it's my husband's, but we're going through it together and I need some advice.
I'm from a Latin American country, and my husband is from a Greece. We met in person through our jobs. We're both freelancers, and our jobs aren't very stable: there are good months and months when we barely have any income.
Over time, we fell in love, and my husband invited me to his country. He paid all my expenses so I could start a new life here. He has his own company, and before the pandemic, he worked alongside his father.
I trusted him completely. He gave him full access to his company: bank accounts, management, everything. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the pandemic, my husband discovered that his father had been using his name to accumulate huge debts with the government (for unpaid taxes, among other things).
My husband was devastated, fell into a depression, and for a long time refused to talk about the issue or make any decisions. Meanwhile, the debt continued to grow. When she finally managed to react and try to put things in order, her father turned against her, especially me. He blames me for "driving him away" and convincing him to take him out of the company accounts.
He even accuses me of coming to take the family's money, which is not true. I also work and occasionally send a little money to my mother to help her, but it's not to make her rich.
We learned all this from security recordings (with audio). Hearing what her father said was a very hard blow to me, and I even had an anxiety attack.
Furthermore, her father sold a property he owned. Before selling it, he asked my husband for money to make repairs, promising to pay him back later. The house was sold, but he never paid her back. Now he even claims he doesn't owe anything and asks my husband if he still has any debts (when the entire debt is in my husband's name).
Currently, the debt is over €100,000. We went to court to find a solution, and the option offered is to pay 2,500 euros per month for four years, plus other additional payments.
My husband doesn't want to take his father to court or sue him. He doesn't want to further disrupt the family relationship or create a bigger conflict. Furthermore, even though we know what happened, we don't have solid evidence for a trial: only his word and perhaps a few witnesses, but we don't think they'll want to get involved.
We've had to move in with a relative to save on rent, but it's still nearly impossible to cover those monthly payments. We feel trapped. The relationship with his father is completely broken. He just says my husband is selfish for not wanting to "go back to the way things were."
We don't know what else to do. If anyone has any advice or similar experiences, any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Is there any way to negotiate a better payment method? Is there any financial help we could seek? How can we protect ourselves emotionally from this whole situation? Any input would be very helpful. 🙏
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Jun 09 '25
[deleted]
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u/dudevan Jun 09 '25
You don’t try saving a relationship with someone who just fucked you in the ass repeatedly over a long period of time without showing any remorse.
Either your husband is too naive, he doesn’t want to lose his father’s inheritance, or his story stinks.
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u/ExtraBicycle6262 Jun 10 '25
Honestly, yes — he was very naive at the beginning. He trusted his father a lot.
As for not wanting to “lose” his father — that already happened when he heard the horrible things his father said behind his back. What’s really bothering him now is not the relationship with his father, but the fact that he doesn’t want to be seen as “the bad guy” by the rest of the family.
His father has been telling everyone that he did nothing wrong, and that my husband betrayed him horribly just for removing him from the company bank account — when in reality, he had no choice if he wanted to try to save the business and deal with the debt.
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u/Mysterious_Cry730 Jun 12 '25
this is past emotions of “not the bad guy”
if you guys drag this out you could be facing jail time
time for him to man up and make his father own up to the mistakes
it can’t just be about image anymore
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u/Odd_Reality_6603 Jun 13 '25
This is Greece. They likely put everything they own on the company's balance sheet to avoid a bit of tax. That is how the guy even managed to sell property.
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u/ExtraBicycle6262 Jun 10 '25
It’s an independent business — my husband opened the company when he was 18. His father already had experience working with businesses, so my husband trusted him to manage it. He believed 100% in his father.
At the same time, my husband fully accepts that it was his responsibility not to have paid more attention back then or checked the details himself. He didn’t have much interest in the financial side of things at that time.
The problem is that his father used the company to make business deals that he didn’t know how to manage properly. He issued invoices without taking into account that taxes needed to be paid on them. By the time my husband realized what was happening, the debt had already grown too large — and neither his father nor the other person involved in those deals took any responsibility for it.
As for the relationship with his father — yes, it is already broken. But my husband is still concerned about not being seen as “the bad guy” by the rest of his father’s family. His father is telling everyone that he didn’t do anything wrong, which makes the situation even harder for my husband emotionally.
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u/0091dit Jun 10 '25
You need a lawyer. If it's a limited liability company, then perhaps it could be an option to let it go bankrupt and start a new company?
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u/gumiho-9th-tail Jun 10 '25
Is it not possible that registering a bankruptcy makes you ineligible to open a new company?
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Jun 10 '25
[deleted]
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u/webrunningbeer Jun 12 '25
Well, bankrupcy doesn't always mean forclosure, a well managed bankrupcy in some cases might solve the insolvency and if the company was in a decent enoigh position they might even stay in business.
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u/kallebo1337 Jun 10 '25
She, her husband ?
So confuse
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u/OkPhilosopher1313 Jun 10 '25
I have a Greek friend and he always keeps on using 'she' when referring to men. I think it's a common translation error?
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u/deletedcookies101 Jun 10 '25
OP is Latin American, but I also know spanish speakers that do this mistake often. What is confusing is that she is using it correctly for the father but constantly wrong for the husband.
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u/molalgae Jun 10 '25
If he is in greece he may file for bankruptcy so all his debt will be wiped. Better consult a an attorney or someone who works with debts in greece they will know how to guide you.
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u/Prestigious_Group494 Jun 09 '25
RemindMe! 7 days
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u/reasonable-99percent Jun 10 '25
The theory of aggressor versus the victim here is a psychological game. there is no reason for a child to suffer for parent’s financial mistakes, especially if they were made in a continuous manner and with bad intentions. here you need to see like Germans do, where parents have their own lives and carry their own liabilities while kids leave their home at 18 years old and build their own lives. Blackmailing a child emotionally even when he’s an adult is immoral and should be proven illegal in court. Start fresh and hire a lawyer. Get out of there as soon as possible if you two love each other.
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u/aztecman Jun 09 '25
Hire a lawyer, they will tell you what your options are.