I noticed your question had been open for a little while and several experts had looked and not answered. The reason is that the news for you is not going to be good. I hate to keep you waiting and so I picked up but please don't "shoot the messenger" or leave bad feedback because I can't help that the law is not in your favor all I can do is tell you what it is.

Unfortunately, there is no way to get your name off of the note at this point. Arguably you could file a motion in the court claiming that the mortgage was an "undivided debt" of the marriage that existed but it sounds like it was at least minimally addressed in the divorce decree and therefore the court would no longer have jurisdiction to do anything about it, even if it could.

The even worse news is that even if the the court could order her to try and refinance the house, if she wasn't able to there is nothing that could be done about it. There is no way that the court can force the lender to remove your name from the note and unless she can get financing at another location the lender that is on the note right now isn't going to want to remove your name because they have two people on the hook right now, rather than just one who has already went into foreclosure once.

The court can't even order her to sell the house since your name is XXXXX XXXXX on the deed and it is not now an asset of the marriage. A court can't order a separate property house sold to pay a community property debt, EVEN if the court still had jurisdiction.

If you had a lawyer in your divorce then you probably need to talk to them and see why this wasn't handled at the time.


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Bankruptcy would do it. It would remove this from your credit profile and they couldn't come after you in the future for it. It really is the only way that you could accomplish what you want for sure.

However, before you file bankruptcy take the divorce decree to a local family lawyer and let them look it over to see if they can get you back into court. I still don't think it would do you any good but the lawyer likely wouldn't charge you anything and if you can find one who does bankruptcy and family law you could wrap it all up in once visit.

If you would like any additional information or have more questions please don’t hesitate to ask but please do so my clicking on the Reply to Expert tab.

We work for Positive Ratings, please click on one of the top three ratings or one of the Smile Faces, as this would be appreciated. We have recently implemented a new rating and feedback system. Please be aware that you are rating my courtesy and service as a professional, and not necessarily whether you like the information that you are receiving. Please bear in mind I can’t control what the law is and whether it helps you, I can only tell you what it says, and I assume you want truthful information.

PLEASE DO NOT use the rating system to ask for more information or in an attempt to tell the website that you didn’t like the substance of the answer as it gives a NEGATIVE rating to me personally if your rating is one of the lower two.