Your goal may be to keep your home even as you go through a divorce. You don’t want to move. Your spouse may suggest selling the house and splitting up the proceeds, but you may counter by saying that you will just buy out their portion of that home ownership. That way, you can take over the mortgage and live there on your own.
However, your spouse may tell you that they will only do it if you get a new mortgage. Why would they want you to do so? After all, the mortgage that you have right now is affordable on your budget. That’s part of why you want to keep your house. You’re worried that getting a new mortgage would give you higher interest rates and make the same home unaffordable.
Your ex does not want to be responsible for missed payments
The main reason that people will require this is that both people on a mortgage are responsible for the payments. This would include both you and your ex, even after the divorce, if you were still on the mortgage documents together. Your lender does not care that you got divorced, and it does not change that obligation in any way.
As such, even if you tell your ex that you will make all of the payments, and you know they are affordable, they may see it as a risk. If you do start missing payments, that could impact your ex’s credit score and creditors may start approaching them to get the payments for a house they haven’t even lived in for years. Getting a new mortgage removes this liability.
Dividing assets in a divorce can certainly get complicated. Be sure you know exactly what options you have and what steps to take so that you avoid future potential problems.
