My husband got his ex-wife's home out of foreclosure a year ago. She never refinanced the loan so his name is still attached to the loan. This affected his credit so we got it out of foreclosure. Now that we are ready to sell it - we find out that she has $52K in judgements against it!! (We took her to court in December of 2006 - the judge ruled that she had to move out and we would take over - I am not sure if this will make any difference in this situation.) Please advise our options for getting these judgments off the house.

The judgments are against the her as the property owner and that property.

The home cannot be sold without the judgments being paid.

I believe that paying them is the only way to get them off that property since it can't even be sold without doing so. I guess if you plan to live there for the rest of your lives, the judgments will just always be there. Are any of these judgments in his name as well, or just against her?

This is my opinion, wonder what someone else has to say?

The judgements are against her only. If she deeds the house over, can we refinance it to get her off the mortgage?

I do not believe it will be possible for her to transfer any ownership of this property until the judgments are paid or dismissed.

Thanks - I know is it not good news, but it is very helpful. Do you think it would be worth hiring an attorney to help us negotiate with the companies that have issued the judgements? There is probably just enough equity to cover the judgements. We have about $20K invested and would like to get this back.

Given the situation, I would definitely speak to an attorney to find out what your options are in this case.

Most will give a free initial consultation.

Good Luck!

Yes, first she can not "just deed it over" to deed it over is to sell it, and all liens on it has to be cleared to do that. She can quitclaim deed her interest in it, but that does not clear up any liens already on the home.

So if her name is still on the home, and the lien is in place, it will have to be paid. A little late, but you may have been better off letting it go into foreclosure. There are times when trying to save a home is not always best.

We did not want to be attached to a foreclosure (it was showing up on my husbands credit report), so we thought we were doing the right thing by getting it out of foreclosure. What a mess this is! The sad thing is - I think it was all deliberate on her part. At this point, we should just rent the property and work on HER judgements.