Can I get off that deed and mortgage?
Q. My boyfriend is divorced and part of his divorce decree states that he has no financial obligation with regards to the house he and his ex-wife purchases will they were married.
The problem is his name is still on the deed and more importantly the mortgage. It's a big problem because now he's trying to get a mortgage to buy a house and he's having a hard time getting approved because his credit report shows that he's already has a $200K mortgage. Is there anything he can do to get his name off that mortgage? His ex-wife has been saying she's going to sell or refinance and get his name off of it for 3 years now and she still hasn't. What can he do?
A. This is one of those potentially ugly family law situations. I say "potentially," because it can be rationally and reasonably worked out, if everyone cooperates. I obviously don't know your boyfriend, or his ex, so you'll have to make the call with respect to how cooperative everyone will be. (Since the ex has not taken any action to resolve this for the past three years, I'm guessing that "cooperative" is not the adjective you'd use to describe her. But I digress.)
There are two separate issues here: the name on the deed is one; the name on the mortgage is the other. The deed question is not particularly complicated, and actually, it might have been covered in the final divorce decree. Often, if one party is no longer obligated to make payments on a house, and is not entitled to live there, the Court may order that the party retaining the property obtain a "new" deed, in his (or her) name only. Obtaining and recording (which means filing it with the County) a new deed is relatively straightforward, but your boyfriend should definitely consult with an attorney (presumably his divorce attorney) to sort through the details and to review his divorce decree in order to find out exactly what it says with respect to the property. (This is especially important in light of the fact that it appears that your boyfriend apparently has no obligations to contribute to the mortgage payments.)
The mortgage question is a little more complicated because your boyfriend and his ex are party a contract with the bank. That's what the mortgage, promissory note, and various other papers all amount to, and banks are usually pretty insistent on parties living up to their obligations under such contracts. They generally don't simply release a party from the contract because of a divorce, a business deal gone bad, or most any other excuse you might conjure up. (You can always ask; I'm just assuming that the present mortgage holder is not going to discharge your boyfriend's obligations under the present mortgage simply because he asks.)
One solution is pretty simply. Your boyfriend's ex, if she's reasonable, could agree to refinance the mortgage on the house on her own. She would then pay off the existing mortgage and obtain a discharge of that mortgage from that Bank. In that way, your boyfriend is off the hook.
If that doesn't look like it's going to work (or if there's heel-dragging), your boyfriend could file a motion with the Court to request relief. That takes time and money, but if that existing mortgage is preventing him from getting another mortgage on his own, he may have to go that way.
Given everything that's going on, I strongly recommend that your boyfriend sit down with his divorce attorney, or another attorney of his choosing, and get some good solid legal advice, especially if it looks like he'll have to ask a judge for relief.
By the way, here's an earlier question involving mortgages and deeds from someone else. You might find it interesting, if nothing else.
Best of luck.
The problem is his name is still on the deed and more importantly the mortgage. It's a big problem because now he's trying to get a mortgage to buy a house and he's having a hard time getting approved because his credit report shows that he's already has a $200K mortgage. Is there anything he can do to get his name off that mortgage? His ex-wife has been saying she's going to sell or refinance and get his name off of it for 3 years now and she still hasn't. What can he do?
A. This is one of those potentially ugly family law situations. I say "potentially," because it can be rationally and reasonably worked out, if everyone cooperates. I obviously don't know your boyfriend, or his ex, so you'll have to make the call with respect to how cooperative everyone will be. (Since the ex has not taken any action to resolve this for the past three years, I'm guessing that "cooperative" is not the adjective you'd use to describe her. But I digress.)
There are two separate issues here: the name on the deed is one; the name on the mortgage is the other. The deed question is not particularly complicated, and actually, it might have been covered in the final divorce decree. Often, if one party is no longer obligated to make payments on a house, and is not entitled to live there, the Court may order that the party retaining the property obtain a "new" deed, in his (or her) name only. Obtaining and recording (which means filing it with the County) a new deed is relatively straightforward, but your boyfriend should definitely consult with an attorney (presumably his divorce attorney) to sort through the details and to review his divorce decree in order to find out exactly what it says with respect to the property. (This is especially important in light of the fact that it appears that your boyfriend apparently has no obligations to contribute to the mortgage payments.)
The mortgage question is a little more complicated because your boyfriend and his ex are party a contract with the bank. That's what the mortgage, promissory note, and various other papers all amount to, and banks are usually pretty insistent on parties living up to their obligations under such contracts. They generally don't simply release a party from the contract because of a divorce, a business deal gone bad, or most any other excuse you might conjure up. (You can always ask; I'm just assuming that the present mortgage holder is not going to discharge your boyfriend's obligations under the present mortgage simply because he asks.)
One solution is pretty simply. Your boyfriend's ex, if she's reasonable, could agree to refinance the mortgage on the house on her own. She would then pay off the existing mortgage and obtain a discharge of that mortgage from that Bank. In that way, your boyfriend is off the hook.
If that doesn't look like it's going to work (or if there's heel-dragging), your boyfriend could file a motion with the Court to request relief. That takes time and money, but if that existing mortgage is preventing him from getting another mortgage on his own, he may have to go that way.
Given everything that's going on, I strongly recommend that your boyfriend sit down with his divorce attorney, or another attorney of his choosing, and get some good solid legal advice, especially if it looks like he'll have to ask a judge for relief.
By the way, here's an earlier question involving mortgages and deeds from someone else. You might find it interesting, if nothing else.
Best of luck.
posted by David Kendall at
1:12 AM
1 Comments:
Hello everyone
This is the first time doing this so im abit nervous.
Basically me and my husband are getting a divorce but my husband wants to live as sole owner in our current house & i will get a new flat. My husband rang our mortgage and they told him the sole owner but unforunately he wont be able to. The mortgage said that he doesnt earn enough income to survive on his own. The only other solution is to sell the house and divide 50/50 which we dont want to do.
We also own another property but we are doing it up and selling it. So what we thought of is that we wait untill we sell no2 house and take 50/50 of that and use my husband would use that lump sum to take off the mortgage. We like this idea but its all depending on whether the mortgage company will say that its ok and you are not so much of a risk and he would take my name off the deeds. But its all depending on how much our no2 house sells for and we took out fees etc. But my husband did say that if he was a lil short he would take out a short loan.
we were also thinking that i move in to no2 house instead of selling but then that wouldn't work.
Please help!
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Anonymous, at 1:28 PM
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