Ex still have house in DH's name
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Does anyone else deal with this problem? We've been together for 7 years, married for 5. The ex will not refinance the house and get DH's name off of it. She has already let the 2nd mortgage foreclose. She keeps giving him sob stories and asks for "more time." When will it ever end? In the meantime, DH's credit is crap, I have to finance everything we have in my name. We have already been to a lawyer, but apparently the wording in their divorce papers wasn't strong enough. There wasn't a time frame listed so the lawyer said there is nothing that we can do. He could maybe declare bankruptcy, but that's about the only option. Anyone else dealing with this nightmare???
Original lawer must of screwed
With the second mortgage foreclosed, She can not possibly do an Re refinanced . She has no credit. Second mortgage will have to be paid off first. The house mostly has no value. What happens in he does bankruptcy now and she loses the house. He Can not do two bankruptcy. Now if you do bankruptcy, you have to try to pay off debt. So he will be paying on second mortgage for three years ?
Apparently the two together
Apparently the two together have a bankruptcy together. (Something I didn't know about!) The 2nd mortgage was "charged off." They aren't making her pay it back. We had to get a CPA on that because we got the papers from the IRS trying to make US pay the taxes on the amount which was a LOT of money. She could sell the house and actually even make some money on it because the market here is up, but we can't force her to do that. She knows she has the upper hand. The 2nd mortgage was charged off 4 years ago. The lawyer seemed to think he could do bankruptcy to get his name removed from the house but her still keep it. I don't know. I don't like the sounds of any of it. We were hoping to relocate and buy another house in a couple of years. I was hoping by that time in our marriage we could co-own a home together but it's not looking good.
You can request a
You can request a clairification ruling. We did that for one of the provisions in DH's divorce. That might give her a deadline to get things done.
I am sorry that you and your
I am sorry that you and your husband are in this predicament. It really is an unfair situation and I think it sucks that these issues are not better addressed in divorces.
Thank God, my husband and BM did not own a house. It was an ordeal just to get his name off of the damn checking account!
mortgages and judges
The dumb thing is that a judge can order a refinance to remove one party, but banks are not a party to the divorce and do not have to abide by the ruling. A judge cannot order a bank to extend a mortgage if someone is not qualified to have one. If neither party can refinance, the house should be sold and if there is any equity it should be divided per terms in the divorce.
Also, it may not be entirely the ex's fault. There may be other joint debt your hubby hasn't disclosed to you that has gone bad, thereby preventing the ex from refinancing. Mortgages are a LOT harder to get these days--the banks practically crawl up your butt before they will give you a dollar!
Yep, should be " refinance by
Yep, should be " refinance by X time, if unable to qualify for financing, the property must be immediately sold".
OP your husband should take the matter to court to clarify that provision. Certainly the judge didn't want his ruling to allow her to just hold the property for an extended period effectively holding your dh financially hostage forever. Since she is not being reasonable the court will set a timeline for her.
Yes, this is what my divorce
Yes, this is what my divorce agreement said with my ex.
He drug his feet getting a re-fi for months after the deadline. He only managed to do it once I threatened him that if he didn't get it done by "x" date then I was getting a lawyer and forcing him to sell due to breach of contract. I didn't want my name on anything financial of his any longer (because...divorce dummy!). Our divorce mediator was astounded (but not shocked) he hadn't followed the agreement. She needs to be forced to sell.
Excellent Point SteppedOut!!
That is an excellent point steppedOut!!
I am not sure when your divorce was finalized from the the time you have been together it sounds like quite a while. I am by no means an expert but it would seem to me if other points in a divorce can be modified and clarified it would seem that this could be clarified too. It would also seem that there would have been some terms set in the agreement. Agreements such as that are not usually put into place for extended periods of time, years in your situation. If a buy agreement is part of a divorce it usually has some reasonable timeframe connected to it. Time is usually granted because it takes time to change mortgage paperwork and deeds it is usually not extended years without another type of stipulation attached to it such as until the children are out of school or something to that effect.
I am sorry that you are going through this. Very difficult situation. You may have said but I didn't catch it, how old are the children involved? I can see BM and court trying to push guilt on the situation too but your husband can not be connected to this forever. It is not fair to ruin his credit.
My husband's ex ruined his credit and it took years to fix it. We struggled with the bills for years and then he finally declared bankruptcy. I had to have everything in my name and as time went on I put my husbands name on my credit and built it back up. It is very difficult but, if you could get on the other side of it and start rebuilding that would help.
My advice is If he declares bankruptcy make sure he does it at the right time to include all he would need to to get off that house and out of anything attached to the ex. It sounds like you have a lawyer so make sure the lawyer understands the entire situation!!
Kind of sounds like my SO's
Kind of sounds like my SO's situation... he got the house in the divorce, and it stated that the "parties would do whatever necessary to carry out the divison of property". No date, nothing. They had a home foreclosed on, so he was not able to refinance until that fell off his credit report. She took him to court about 2 years after the divorce was final to try to force him to refinance or sell. Bottom line, the judge said that he was making payments, and allowed more time to get his credit in order.
In your situation, however, I imagine a judge would say 7 years is more than a reasonable amount of time . Do their divorce papers state that she gets the house? It seems crazy that your DH's lawyer would suggest he file bankruptcy... I would think you could go back to court to force her to sell. He may not walk away with any money from the sale, but he would be able to put the whole thing behind him.
Are there kids involved in this?? Where do they live?
Also, I would think that this
Also, I would think that this is pretty straight forward, maybe even request mediation before a hearing to save $, and I am not sure I would even bother with a lawyer on this. You should be able to handle this yourselves.
The divorce papers didn't
The divorce papers didn't specify a date or anything. They just said she would assume all debts of the house and the house was given to her. The lawyer said because it didn't say, refinance, sell, get his name off or anything, that would be a very hard one to win in court. There are two kids. One is in college and not living there and the other will soon be 16 and lives there with BM.
I would try talking to another Lawyer....
I would try talking to another Lawyer
First you can usually get some basic information without having to retain a lawyer so I would call around. It doesn't seem reasonable that the terms would be that vague and that he would be held responsible to own property with her after the divorce.
I would also push the technicality of the terms you described. If she is to assume all of the debts of the house it would seem that she would have to refinance to do so. It would not seem resonable for your DH to have to stay in this situation.
I would also make sure he never sign off on a deed without getting his name off the mortgage. By signing off the deed you are signing away your legal right to a property you still have to pay for. Most courts would never expect you to sign off the deed before a refiance.
Difficult situation. We went through a similar experience.