Get Me Off The Mortgage
Hi, I divorced my husband about a year ago and he bought me out of the mortgage. We did this personally and not through a mortgage company. Now I just want my name off the mortgage and he is dragging his feet. He says that he had to save
$10,000 to refinance and get a new mortgage with just his name. Hence, he has saved no money yet and I am worried about my credit and want to move on with my life. Is there a way to get my name off the mortgage with little or no expense. Please help!
J :-(
short answer is no. you should have had him refinance to remove your name as part of the divorce decree, that way he'd be in contemt of court. is the deed still in both names?
Nope. Sorry. Virtually impossible unless you have some kind of additional security for the lender that's more valuable than their LTV.
Such a matter is wholly up to the lender, and they are extremely unlikely to budge
... especially in view of the domestic situation; and also since you appear to be the most responsible one of the two of their co-guarantors.
However, with the appropriate documentation, I doubt that any underwriter would penalize you relative to your Debt ot Income ratio re. a new loan, so long as the payment responsibilities are not directly yours, particularly if the payment history is good. This loan being still partly in your name shouldn't hurt you credit-wise to any great degree.
A letter explaining the circumstances will almost always assuage the underwriter for your next mortgage loan if your FICO scores are good.
Bill Gatten
With all due respect to Bills far greater experience in this area then my own, I happen to have my own troubles with a land trust agreement that is still financed in my name(full post in Legal forum). From the several loan officers I've talked to, paper makes no difference on a non-income generating property. Just because someone else is responsible for making payments on paper, they only care that you could still be legally responsible to make payments, hence it goes against your debt/income ratio. Also, any late payments on the part of the ex will affect her credit rating as well. Again, I'm no expert in these legal matters, but I've been trying to get out of my land trust problem, similar in nature to her ex-husband's deal, with no luck. My credit has taken both positive and negative hits, and I've had three banks(Washington Mutual was one) tell me that the property counts, regardless of what the Scum told me when I stupidly signed into the agreement. I was trying to get rid of my house quickly(for a divorce) and I was too eager and trusting of the wrong person....
Thanks for the unsettling news. So he has to refinance no matter what? I suppose if I ever buy a new home with a future spouse, I will not put my name on it until my ex follows through. I do not want the bank going after my new house if the ex defaults. I guess it is back to calling and pestering him to get a move on it.
Normally, with refi'ing it comes with "no out of pocket closing costs". So I find it kind of difficult to believe that he would need to bring $10,000 to the table. Either he has absolutely no equity in the house, 2) the lender lied to him blatantly or 3) he is lying to you... I would probably have to assume 3. What is the appraised value vs. the loan amount payoff.
Well, we basically have no equity in the home. We bought a 185,000 house three years ago with only 10,000 down. Anyway I called the mortgage company and they are sending me an assumption document which will get my name off withing 30 to 60 days. He told me that this does not work if we are already divorced, but that is not the impression I got from the mortgage person. Hopefully he makes enough a year to be approved to carry the loan on his own. By the way, he may be lying. He did it for six months while cheating on me. I wouldn't put it past him.
The divorce has nothing to do with the mortgage; he can complete the assumption package and get you off. The only way the divorce applies is that he doesn't HAVE to do this unless your divorce decree says he does.
Divorces suck - the judge often orders one party to quit claim their interest, yet they remain liable for the debt. BAD IDEA. Fight it tooth and nail - it is the cause of many, many foreclosures and the party leaving the property behind has their credit ruined. NEVER sign a quit claim without being removed from the mortgage (via refinance or assumption)!!!
Thanks for all your advice. I am meeting with him next Thursday to fill out all the assumption paperwork.
refinance is the only way, and you must be there to sign off.