Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Divorce/Mortgage
Hello,
I have a very important question that I hope you can answer.
I bought a house with my husband and we both share the mortgage. We're about to separate/divorce. How does one of us sign off the mortgage rights, so the other one can continue to stay and purchase the house?
The way the market is today, it's hard to sell our house as soon as we would like. Any suggestions would be helpful.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Divorce/Mortgage
Unfortunately, you can't merely sign off your "mortgage rights" merely because you're divorcing. The way this issue is normally dealt with in divorce is that the spouse who is to retain the home refinances the mortgage in his or her name which effectively removes the other spouse
from having any further responsibility for the matter.
An attorney should prepare a PSR(Property Settlement Agreement)which embodies all of the important financial as well as other issues such as support and maintenance, custody, visitation, etc., which need to be resolved as a result of the dissolution of the marriage and which is then incorporated as a continuing contract between the couple into their final decree of divorce.