Joint mortgage loan after divorce - who pays the loan bills?

Joint mortgage: It's vital to not walk away from a divorce with the mortgage in both your names. Here are possible ways to cope with joint home ownership, listed in best to worst order of preference: Sell the home. Make sure the sale occurs before the divorce, especially if your ex is living in the house during the divorce proceedings. If you just have an agreement to sell at the time of your final divorce, and your spouse is secretly opposed to selling it, he/she can make it very difficult for a realtor to show or list the home, dragging out the time to sell indefinitely. In the meantime, you are responsible for the payments and your credit is in jeopardy. It's actually best to have the house empty during the sale of the home, so if possible, both of you should be out of the house before it goes up for sale. If one spouse is to keep the house after the divorce, insist that your soon-to-be-ex obtain new financing in his/her own name. You can't just call up the mortgage company and ask for you or your spouse to be removed from the loan. Your bank is going to insist on having them go through the formal loan process to qualify. If he/she is not able to qualify for financing on his/her own, maybe their relative can co-sign for them?  If you take your name off of title, you are removing ownership but not loan responsibility, a very dangerous situation to be in. Yes, this means that you will not be able to split the equity in the home at the present time. Place a limit on how long your ex can stay in the house before it has to be sold or refinanced. Notify the mortgage company of your change of address and have all statements and coupon booklets sent to your new address. In this way, if your ex is late on payments, you will be notified and you can get the chance to make up the payments.

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