Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Your divorce was not handled very properly. You should have given up the property unless you had an order that she refinance the property or sell it. That is the only way to get you off the debt. A loan modification is not a refinance, so it is still the same loan you agreed to be liable for while you were married. Wells Fargo is not bound by your divorce orders or any deals with your ex. They have no obligation to release you from the loan. It's an interesting problem that the loan was modified without your consent. You might be able to get a court order undoing the modification, but then your wife would have to come current on the the loan under the original terms. If she couldn't, you would have to or the best that would happen is a foreclosure or bankruptcy on your record, since it's your loan too. At worst they could elect to sue on the note and come after you personally for the full debt. So while technically the modification shouldn't have been granted without your consent, do you really want to pick that fight?

I think Mr. McCormick probably meant to write ".....you should NOT have given up the property..."

I also think someone or several someones have confused "loan modification" with "refinance." If your divorce property settlement called for your ex to acquire the property from you by quitclaim and then refinance it to take you off the financing, she has not done that by merely modifying the terms of the existing loan.