Divorced and both still on the mortgage

Good to know: selling to us does not mean you have to do any of this yourself. A title company handles the closing paperwork.

What a decree does, and what it doesn't

How someone actually comes off the loan

1. Refinance. The spouse keeping the house takes a new loan in their own name. The old one is paid off and both are out of it. It takes qualifying on one income, which is where many plans run into trouble.
2. Assumption. The federal consumer agency says that to release the original borrower, the keeping spouse generally has to assume the mortgage after meeting the lender's underwriting. Not every request goes smoothly: homeowners have reported waits of months or even years.
3. Sell. When a sale pays off the loan at closing, nobody is left on it. That holds only for a sale that pays it off. A buyer on terms could leave your loan in place, so ask before signing. If the house is worth less than the loan, tell both attorneys first.

A helpful protection if one of you keeps it: a lender may not call a home loan due solely because a spouse becomes an owner through a decree, separation agreement, or property settlement. That covers one spouse taking over. It doesn't reach a sale to an outside buyer.

If the decree gave a deadline to refinance, and it's looking tight, tell your attorney now rather than at the deadline. What happens next depends on what your decree says.

Getting title to match the decree

Winning the house in the decree doesn't always put it in your name at the courthouse. Something has to be recorded.

In Minnesota, when a decree describes real estate, one spouse or their lawyer prepares a summary real estate disposition judgment. It names who was awarded each parcel and lists liens and mortgages. That summary, not the whole decree, is what gets recorded or filed with the registrar of titles.

Land in St. Louis County is either Abstract or Torrens, and that decides which side of the office takes it. Deed tax doesn't apply to the decree or to a deed between spouses under it, which is different from a sale to an outsider.

Wisconsin has no summary judgment like this. You record a certified copy of the part of the judgment affecting title, or a matching deed.

The St. Louis County Recorder is at the Duluth Courthouse, 100 N. 5th Ave. W., phone 218-726-2677. Staff won't help prepare documents and send questions to a real estate attorney or an abstractor.

Do this before you assume it's done

• Pull a current mortgage statement. Whose names are on it?
• Ask the recorder's office for the last recorded deed. Whose names are on that?
• Read the decree for any deadline to refinance or sell.
• Ask your attorney whether the real estate part was ever recorded.
• Check that homeowner's insurance and tax statements go to the right person.

If there is a history of abuse, read safety and local help before calling the servicer. The federal consumer agency found survivors reporting servicers kept sending account information to their abusers.