Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: I want off the mortgage loan

Bankruptcy will effectively get you off the mortgage.

Re: I want off the mortgage loan

You and about 500,000 other Americans who bought or did cash-out refi loans between about 2002 and late 2006 are in the same boat. What did you get in exchange for giving up your part ownership via quitclaim (NOT quick claim) deed? Nothing at all, I bet. You have made a common mistake: equating ownership with liability on the loan. Paying off the loan does not divest you of ownership, nor does selling the property take you off the hook for payment of the loan.

Bankruptcy has been suggested as one way to shed liability, but if you are not really bankrupt, this solution may be unpalatable for a bunch of reasons, including what it'll do to your credit rating and other assets.

In California, there are laws that protect borrowers from personal liability on defaulted real-estate loans. They are called antideficiency rules, and in many cases their effect is to oblige a foreclosing lender to be satisfied with the proceeds of foreclosure and not be able to get a judgment for any shortfall. Is the new 100% owner making half the payments, all the payments, or none of the payments now?

I don't recommend either bankruptcy or allowing a loan default and foreclosure to occur until a Calif. real estate lawyer has looked at all the circumstances of the loan, but sometimes a person in your position is best off by defaulting when the lender lacks personal recourse.

The rules are complicated to start with, and here we apparently have codebtors with likely different views on letting a default and foreclosure occur, so you really need a top-to-bottom analysis of your situation to see what fits.