A jointly responsible party shares an obligation with other people regarding a debt.
Responsible , originating from the Latin word responsum , is a term with several uses. In this case, we are interested in its meaning as the adjective that qualifies the person who has the obligation, whether moral or legal, to respond for something or someone. Solidarity , on the other hand, is that or that which is related or linked to a cause, a need, etc.
The obligation shared by several parties regarding a debt or other commitment is known as joint liability . When there is joint liability, a person has the right to claim payment of a debt or compensation for damage from any of the responsible parties or even all of them , without any of them being able to excuse themselves to evade their responsibility.
Obligations of the jointly responsible
This means that, in the case of a debt , the creditor can demand full payment from any of the individuals who are jointly liable. They cannot decide to pay only part or ask that the creditor refer it to another of the responsible parties. In other words: the jointly responsible person has the obligation to compensate the entire amount claimed even though there are also other debtors.
For the creditor, the existence of jointly liable parties is an advantage since they can demand payment of the debt from any of them, because all of them must be responsible for their rights. When you get the debt settled by one of the jointly responsible parties, you can no longer claim payment from the others (you cannot claim to collect your debt more than once ).
The jointly liable person is obliged to settle everything claimed regardless of the existence of other debtors.
Differences with subsidiary liability
On many occasions, it must be emphasized that ordinary citizens tend to confuse what joint liability is with subsidiary liability. However, they are different things. The latter refers to what an individual has due to non-payment of a debt by a third person. Specifically, what happens is that, given the impossibility of collecting the money from the holder, the obligation is transferred to those who have amounts pending payment with it.
By this we mean the fact that this type of liability only takes place at the time when the main debtor does not pay the debt he has contracted.
In order to fully understand this difference between both types of responsibility, there is nothing better than resorting to a specific example. Thus, for example, if we refer to a loan with guarantees, we come across the fact that the guarantors have a subsidiary responsibility, in that they will be responsible for assuming the payment of the debt in the event that the owner does not do it accordingly.
In the same way, these guarantors also have joint liability because a collection action can be exercised against any of them, indistinctly. This is a responsibility that, in this specific case, is fully enforceable without the need for the main debtor to declare himself incapable of meeting the aforementioned debt.