If I sign a quitclaim deed, am I off the mortgage?
Answered by Chris Deutsch, Founder & Editor
Licensed Minnesota Realtor #20382264 ·
The short answer
No — and this single misunderstanding has wrecked more post-divorce credit than any other. A quitclaim deed moves your ownership. It does nothing to the loan. Sign one without the loan being handled and you've reached the worst seat in the house: no ownership, full liability. Your ex misses a payment on a house you don't own, and your credit eats it anyway — for years.
On stage The 60-second answer
Captions on · Transcript below
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The longer answer
Only three things actually remove a name from a mortgage: a refinance in the keeping spouse's name alone, a loan assumption the lender formally approves (rarer, worth asking about), or selling the house and paying the loan off. A divorce decree saying "spouse A is responsible for the mortgage" does not bind the lender — they didn't sign your decree.
So the sequencing rule is absolute: the deed transfers when the loan is resolved, not before. Your attorney will say the same, and this isn't legal advice — it's just the order of operations that keeps your name clean. If a sale ends up being the cleanest exit, that part I can run quietly.
The next department over
What people in this spot usually ask next.
- Divorce & separationWho pays the mortgage while the divorce is going on?Read the answer
- Divorce & separationMy name isn't on the deed. Do I have any claim to the house in our divorce?Read the answer
- Divorce & separationCan I buy a new place before the divorce is final?Read the answer
- Divorce & separationHow do we sell the house without the whole neighborhood knowing why?Read the answer
- Senior transitionsWill my parents owe capital gains tax after 40 years in the same house?Read the answer
- Senior transitionsMom's deed has a life estate on it. Can she still sell the house?Read the answer
From the editor's desk
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