Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia
Deeds
I am divorced from my wife, and am a co-owner on a home. I signed over the deed to her after the divorce through the Court. She was esponsible for refinancing the mortgage to remove my name. It has been some time now and I am trying to purchase another home but hit a wall due to this situation. My question is this: Can she be given a time period in which to get this done, and if not done can she be brought to court, and be ordered to get it done or face the consequence of judge ordering the house to be sold to remove the debt from me since I am no longer the owner of the home?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Deeds
Unless it was clearly spelled out either in your Propertly Settlement Agreement(PSA)or somewhere else in the Final Decree that your former wife
would be required to refinance the mortgage (or at least attempt to)on the house in order to remove your name, you would have no basis to bring her back to court on contempt charges.
A provision which merely stipulated that you would
execute a quitclaim deed to convey your interest in the property without explicitly specifying her
responsibility to refinance would not be enough even if there was an unwritten agreement that she
would seek to refinance the mortgage on the property.