My [29f] fiance [31m] let his student loans go into garnishment.
My fiance and I split finances based on our income. I make significantly more than he does. We relocated a few years back for my job in a rural area where it was difficult for him to get a job. He has loans from several different loan servicers. From what I knew, he put his loans on deferment while he job searched. I had to push him to even talk to his loan servicers so he wouldn't have to make payments when he couldn't afford it.
After he found a job, I trusted he would keep on track on his own and figure out his payments. Turns out he let one of the loans go to collections, and now it's being garnished from his wages. His reasoning was they sent him letters about it for a while but they never actually did anything so he thought the letter didn't mean anything.
We are now looking to move and got a rental application denial because of his credit score and garnishment (this was how I found out the issue was at this point). I don't even care that his credit or the loan situation is bad. That happened in the past. I care about how he handles the situation now.
So far, he's handled it by shutting down whenever I try to talk about it. He doesn't want to look at his credit to sort any of this out because it reminds him of the bad mistakes he made in the past. It's not my responsibility, but I would even handle it myself so he doesn't have to. I don't have all the information I need to even try to figure out where to start with getting him set up with a payment plan, and he shuts down whenever I try to work on it for him.
With my finances, I could easily rent a place on my own. I really don't want this to be the cause of us splitting up, but it's so incredibly frustrating that he won't work with me so he doesn't even have to handle it. These loans aren't going away and he can't just ignore it.
I want to make an ultimatum that he needs to work with me so I can handle it for him or he needs to come up with a plan of his own and actually follow through or I will be moving into my own place once our lease ends. I'm sure this would leave him without housing considering his financial/credit situation.
I don't want to end things because otherwise, we have a very good, stable relationship. I know ultimatums are never a good option. What other options do I have to try to make this work? Is an ultimatum unreasonable in this position? Do I even try to make this work? What can I do for myself if I do have to end things and it leaves him without housing?
Tl; dr: fiance left student loans unpaid long enough to go into garnishment and shuts down when I try to talk to him about fixing it.