When you are getting divorced, you may decide that you want to keep your house. Even though the marriage is ending, you still love the home and you recognize how valuable it is to own such an asset in a tough housing market. You do not want to give that up just because your marriage is ending.
You may be able to keep the house, especially if your spouse is willing to take other assets instead. Say that the two of you own a vacation property or a small business together. These other assets may have the same value as the house, allowing you to take over as the sole owner while still dividing assets following property division laws.
However, even if you do this, you likely still need to refinance and get a new mortgage. Why is this so important?
Responsibility for future payments
The issue is that anyone on a mortgage is still responsible for making those payments. Their marital status doesn’t matter.
In other words, you and your spouse may have bought the house together, but your ex is no longer living there after the divorce. But the mortgage lender doesn’t care if you got divorced or not. From their perspective, both you and your former spouse are still responsible for payments. Even if you assure your ex that you will make those payments, if you miss any, the lender can contact your ex to ask for payment.
Refinancing gets you around this issue. When you put the mortgage in your name, you are the only one who has to pay it back. This is just one step to take during a divorce, and it’s important to understand all of your legal options.
