Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: mortgage title

Perhaps you meant that you want to add your friend as a obligor on the mortgage, someone else the mortgage company could come after if there were a shortfall. It'd be a silly thing for you to do, frankly, with very little upside. You CAN if you're worried about getting sick or something, have him added as someone to notify when the mortgage payment isn't made; that's just a small administrative matter.

You also asked if the mortgage holder would have to be notified. The answer is a resounding 'yes' and I should have mentioned it in my last letter when I assumed you wanted to change the title to the property. Well, you don't HAVE to but if it's discovered that you gave away some interest in the property without their permission, they can call the loan if they choose right there. (It's called 'accelerating' the loan; you'd have to pay it all off, which means you'd have to go get a new loan from someone to be able to keep the place and prevent a foreclosure sale.)

Re: mortgage title

Yes, of course you can put someone else's name on your property title. That's a gift of some sort. Because you are not married, there will be estate or gift tax ramifications -- it's possible that no tax would need to be paid presently but you'd be using up your lifetime credit in the amount of the value of the gift, presumably half the property's value if you keep your own name on the title as well. Using up the credit or possibly being assessed an actual tax are both what I call ramifications. This also affects your "estate planning" (to reduce death or inheritance tax) significantly. It COULD be a good thing, though, it's just that you ought to be conscious of it.

If you have an asset protection purpose in mind, there are other things to consider as well.

I assume you want him or her to have the right of survivorship, to own the property outright if you die first. There are several ways to accomplish that without triggering any "ramification" even without getting married, or else to substantially discount the value of the gift. There are a variety of ways to share the property, called interests (having nothing to do with the kind of interest a bank pays). For example, there are lifetime and remainder interests, contingent interests, etc. There are also schemes such as QPRTs (Qualified Personal Residence Trust) which allow a variety of very technical splits of the full property value according to federal guidelines which reduce the ramifications, and there are nominee trusts which keep private the actual division of the property under Massachusetts law.

How much does it cost? To just "add a name" to the title, I'd charge you $250 including filing fees if it the property is on registered land and $200 if not. Each of those would include the counseling necessary to choose the right titling option. If one of the more sophisticated techniques is required for your purposes, the price would be higher.

Feel free to call me if you want me to handle this.