Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland

Re: mortgage responsibilities

Your contractual relationship with the lender generally makes each of you jointly and severally liable for all of the debt. It is particularly important that unmarried property owners have a written agreement with each other regarding payment of the debt. An unwritten agreement between two debtors about how much each will pay is likely not to be enforceable. One party may bring an action to sell the property and pay off the mortgage, which could end this difficult situation.

Re: mortgage responsibilities

She is still responsible for paying the mortgage, but they are both legally responsible to the lender for the full amount of the mortgage. His remedy is to either try and buy her out at an agreed upon price, to make an agreement with her to put the property up for sale, with a prearrangement that he gets credit for an amount reflecting his uneven contributions, or if they can't reach an agreement, to file a court action known as a partition, in which he asks the court to appoint a trustee to sell the property, and also asks the court to determine how much each owner's share should be. Of course, this would be costly and result in lower proceeds to them if sold, assuming the property has any equity at all at this time.