Can You Transfer a Mortgage In Divorce?

With 70% of all divorces in the United States involving real estate, one of the first questions to arise is “Can you transfer a mortgage in a divorce?” The answer is yes and no – depending upon what type of mortgage you have.
There are typically only 3 ways to transfer a mortgage in a divorce:

1. Transfer an assumable mortgage by working with the current lender to approve a qualified individual to take over your current mortgage. Typically, the loan type must be an assumable loan type. Unfortunately, assumable loan types may be challenging to find. Most government loans, FHA and VA are assumable while assumable conventional loans are rare.
2. Refinancing the current mortgage into the name of one spouse only is the most frequent way to transfer ownership in a divorce. An equity buyout is where one spouse refinances the home into their name while taking equity out of the home to payoff the vacating spouse which typically means more favorable interest rates than a standard cash out refinance.
3. Transfer of ownership due to divorce judgement may cause alarm when you see the Due on Sale clause in the loan documents stating that the loan must be paid off when the property sells or ownership is transferred thereby accelerating the loan. However, divorce is an exception to this rule allowing ownership to be transferred to another spouse incident to divorce even if that spouse is not currently on the mortgage.

For more questions regarding the transfer of ownership of the marital home during divorce, contact a Certified Divorce Lending Professional in your area.
It is always important to work with an experienced mortgage professional who specializes in working with divorcing clients. A Certified Divorce Lending Professional (CDLP) can help answer questions and provide excellent advice.

This is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal or tax advice. You should contact an attorney or tax professional to obtain legal and tax advice. Interest rates and fees are estimates provided for informational purposes only, and are subject to market changes. This is not a commitment to lend. Rates change daily – call for current quotations.