My son bought a house with his girlfriend-he took the first…

No, if the house is deeded to both parties and the loan is in both their names, it doesn't matter who put down the deposit for purposes of ownership. The party who put the downpayment would only be relevant for purposes of dividing any equity after a sale or if one party bought out the other.

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There is not a 50/50 chance. If it goes to court there is a 100% chance that the court will order a sale of the property. So unless you can negotiate some sort of buy out, the property would have to be sold.

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It would only ruin his credit if the loan went into default because one party didn't pay the mortgage. If ex kept house and defaulted later because she couldn't afford the payment, it would be reported as a default on both their credit reports since they are both on the mortgage unless she refinanced.

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If she buys him out, then you should mandate that she has to refinance in her name alone before any deed is signed over and any payment is made so that your son is off the hook for the mortgage liability.

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Not to rain on the parade, but in my experience if it took 2 parties to qualify for a loan, it is extremely unlikely that only one party would be able to refinance based on their income alone. With that said, if that is the case and her income would not be enough for her to refi solely in her name, then the only real options would be for son to buy her out or to sell the house.

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Thanks.

Matt