In a divorce, I let my ex-wife have the house.  I want my credit
report to somehow reflect that I am not liable for this house.  My
ex-wife sent me a quitclaim deed to sign, giving her all rights to the
house, but does this actually get reported to credit agencies?  I
thought the only way to get my name off the house was if she
re-financed.

Dear  aj1974,

You are correct. If your name remains on the mortgage, you remain
liable for payments, and thus any missed or late payments will appear
on your credit record. The only way to avoid this is to have the home
refinanced.

The key to your rights is your judgment of divorce. Assuming your wife
was to receive the house pursuant to that judgment, ordinarily there
would be a requirement that she refinance so as to remove your name
from any loans or mortgages secured by the house. (It would be
unusual, at least where I practice, for a judgment to require you to
quitclaim the house to her, but for you to nonetheless remain liable
on the mortgage. There are unusual circumstances where this might
happen, but I would as a matter of course strongly object to judgment
language which I did not feel adequately protected my client's
rights.)

If you search the Internet you may find the suggestion that, if there
is significant equity in the home, it doesn't matter if your name is
on the house. The theory is that you will be protected by that equity
in the event of a foreclosure. I respectfully disagree. First, having
your name on the mortgage will affect your ability to purchase another
home, even if all payments are being  made, as the mortgage will
appear on your credit report. Second, missed and late payments, even
if eventually made, will also appear on your credit report. Third, in
the event of a foreclosure, the foreclosure will also appear on your
credit report and is likely to severely affect your credit.

If your judgment of divorce requires refinancing or the removal of
your name from the mortgage as a condition of the transfer of title,
you should inform your ex- that you are happy to quitclaim the house
to her as part of that, but not before you are sure your name will
ultimately be removed. However, if the judgment requires transfer
without regard to refinancing, you may be in an awkward position. The
following article, by an attorney as reproduced on divorcesource.com,
gives some suggestions on what you might do if that is the case:
http://www.divorcesource.com/WI/ARTICLES/beaulier14.html 

As the article implies, if your ex-wife does not have to refinance
under the divorce agreement, and the mortgage company will not
voluntarily agree to remove your name from the title, there is little
you can do. A bank is not ordinarily bound by the language of a
divorce agreement.

As your rights are ultimately determined by the language of the
judgment, please feel free to ask for clarification of your rights
while quoting the judgment language addressing the home and its
mortgage.


Additional Links

You can find a lot of information about divorce and your rights in the
Google Directory,
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Law/Legal_Information/Family_Law/Divorce/


I hope you find this helpful,

- expertlaw

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Clarification of Answer by expertlaw-ga on 10 Aug 2002 06:25 PDT

You may wish to check with your mortgage company to see if they will
voluntarily remove your name, as if they will your problem will be
resolved.

Thanks again,

- expertlaw

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Clarification of Answer by expertlaw-ga on 28 Aug 2002 17:22 PDT

As you provided a "four star" rating, presumably you were less than
fully satisfied with the answer provided. Please request any
clarification you require to bring yourself to total satisfaction.
Thank you,

- expertlaw.