Responsibility for Repayment

• If the mortgage is in both spouses' names, both spouses are responsible for repaying the loan. That's true even if a judge has ordered one spouse or the other to make the payments. The court is not a party in your contract with your lender, so it can't change the contract's terms.
  
  

Transferring Responsibility

• The most common way to transfer responsibility is for one spouse to take out a home equity loan or second mortgage, or take a cash-out loan that results in a new first mortgage. In either case, the borrower can use money borrowed against the equity to buy out her spouse. The other option is for one spouse to assume the loan, or transfer it into his name alone. Not all loans allow assumption, but if yours does, that could be a good option.
  
  

Qualifying for Refinancing

• The spouse who's planning to refinance in her own name or assume the loan must qualify for financing on her own. Divorce often leads to credit issues that can make qualifying difficult, if not impossible. In this case, the options would be to keep both spouses on the mortgage until one can qualify on her own or sell the home. In a sale, the mortgage is paid off at closing, relieving both spouses of further responsibility for repayment.
  
  

Can't Finance, Can't Sell

• If the spouse who wants to transfer the loan into his name doesn't qualify and the house can't be sold because more is owed on it than the home is worth, there are two options. The better one is for both spouses to move out of the home and put it up for rent. The rental income would pay part of all of the mortgage until it's possible to refinance or sell. The last-resort option is a short sale, for which the lender would need to agree to allow the spouses to sell the home for less than they owe on the mortgage.
  
  

Transferring Ownership

• A divorcing or divorced couple can use a quitclaim deed to remove the spouse who's relinquishing ownership. The relinquishing spouse literally "quits" any "claims," or rights of ownership, she has in the property. The quitclaim deed is obtained with a simple form available at your county courthouse.