Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: quick deed

First, there is no such thing as a "quick deed." I have no idea where people come up with this term. There is a kind of deed called a "quitclaim deed." Maybe that's what you meant.

Further, a person cannot be removed from a mortgage by deed. Deeds are used to change ownership. Your mortgage doesn't reflect ownership; it reflects a loan which the people who signed as co-borrowers have promised to repay, with interest.

If your husband deeded the mortgaged property to you, he would be "removed from title" but would remain on the mortgage exactly as before.

There are several ways to remove your husband from the mortgage:

(1) Pay off the loan.

(2) Refinance the loan with a new one in your name alone (which in effect gets the first loan paid off, of course).

(3) Ask your existing lender if it is willing to rewrite the existing mortgage to show you as the sole borrower. Sometimes, believe it or not, they will do this for a small fee to cover the cost of the paperwork and re-recording.

In some situations I've encountered, rather than go through a lot of hassle with an uncooperative lender (hey, two borrowers are better than one, that's two people we can look to for payment!), the person who will continue to pay the mortgage just gives an indemnification to the person who is no longer to make payments. This avoids having to deal with the lender and often adequately protects the person who wants to be off the hook in the future.