A Fiancee's Unknown Obligations

Q: My fiancee has her name on three mortgages for two commercial buildings with her ex-husband. According to the divorce decree, her ex-husband has until August 2009 to refinance the mortgages.

He wants to do an assumption, which would not take away her liability. He had her sign something last weekend, which in theory says that the lenders have agreed to take away her liability from one of the properties.

I don't trust her ex-husband, and I have no idea what she has signed. Can you shed some light on what she may have signed

AI have no idea what your fiancee signed. But I hope she read the document thoroughly and had her lawyer look at it first. But I'm guessing that neither of those things happened, which is why she can't explain to you what her liability is or will be.

You didn't ask this question, but I'll throw out another piece of advice: You should make sure you understand everything there is to know about your fiancee's finances and her responsibilities and liabilities on these (and perhaps other) properties. It sounds as if she has a financial liability when it comes to these properties but may not have an ownership interest in them.

If she was careless enough to sign a quitclaim deed, giving her ownership rights to her ex without him securing new financing that would relieve her of any liability, that would be a big red flag: She may either not fully understand what this means or not care enough to secure her own financial future.

If I were you, I would want to make sure I understand what her financial obligations are, what she owns and what problems could arise from these obligations.

I am a cosigner on a mortgage. Will a quitclaim deed remove me from this debt?

No. The debt will remain but a quitclaim deed will take away your ownership interest in the property.

I have a house with a recent appraisal of $110,000 that my friend would like to buy. He has a house with a tax-assessed value of $150,000 that I want to buy.

I owe $55,000 on a private loan for my house. We would like to mutually reduce our asking prices by about $50,000 to make our houses that much more affordable. So, technically I would need a loan of just $90,000, and he would need a loan of just $55,000 to pay off my mortgage. How can we structure this?

If I tell an appraiser I'm buying it for $90,000, wouldn't that make the "market value" of the property $90,000? I don't want the future value of the home to be reduced just because I'm buying it at a lower value than anybody else could buy it for right now.