Greetings:

My wife owns a house in Birmingham, Alabama, that she and I have been refurbishing to sell. This is the house that she owned before we married and moved to another city. Her father owns the mortgage on the house. It is a legitimate mortgage, filed in court, not an "under the table" one. When we sell the house (hopefully soon), he of course will be paid off. We are almost finished with the remodel, but an unfortunate situation has arisen. He has become very ill recently, and we do not know how much longer he will be with us. My question is, what happens to the mortgage upon his death? He has stated that if he dies before we have sold the house, he would like my wife to have it free and clear, but we have no documents to this effect. Do we need something like a "release of mortgage upon my death" document, if such exists? If his will states his wishes to this effect, is that enough to release the mortgage in order for us to sell the house? Or would we have to wait for the will to go through probate before we could sell the house? Thank you for any advice you can give.

If the release is not in writing somewhere, then the mortgage becomes an asset of the estate and gets treated per the will and the executor.

YOU NEED TO GET ADVICE FROM A LAWYER AT THIS POINT!!