Getting divorced is not simple or clean. Owing a house with a joint mortgage or home equity credit line, or HELOC, during a divorce just makes things messier. Just because the court given your ex-spouse the house and the debt that goes with it does not mean you are off the hook for those payments. Mortgage notes don’t have a”pay until the loan is paid off or you get a divorce clause” in them. The lending company will still report that loan on your own credit and hold you responsible in case of default. Fortunately, in case your ex-spouse is paying the loan, then it does not need to hold you back from buying a house of your own.

Make sure that your divorce decree clearly states you aren’t responsible for the payments on the old mortgage or HELOC. If your divorce decree requires your ex-spouse to refinance the house within a specific amount of time, enforce that clause of the decree. In the event the divorce decree does not mention who is ordered to pay the loans, have the decree amended to show which party is responsible for the loan.

Ask your ex-spouse to supply you with canceled checks for at least 12 months revealing she made the mortgage or HELOC payments as needed. If this is not possible, as occasionally it will not be, write a letter to accompany your divorce decree stating you haven’t made the payments on the opposite mortgage and, per the divorce decree, then you aren’t obligated to make them. If your former partner has made the payments on time, this should be sufficient.

Make sure your creditor does not cause you to qualify with the other mortgage debt in your debt-to-income, or DTI, ratios. The more debt you have, the higher your DTI ratios areand the less home you are able to purchase. Many creditors will exclude the debt when the borrower clearly isn’t obligated to pay and hasn’t been paying.

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