First some questions.
Does the decree expressly order your ex-wife to assume the mortgage lien and hold you harmless of further liability?
Is there any language in the QCD to the effect that releasing unto her your vested ownership in the house is made subject to her full assumption of the mortgage note and indemnifying you of further liability?
Does the decree require her to refinance the mortgage in her sole name? (Your use of the conjunction in " . . . but has not refinanced " vaguely suggest it is so.)
The reason I am prying is to determine whether or not you'd have a claim against her estate should she pass before the mortgage note is paid the lien released.
(FWIW the reason Ldij is not prying of such is because she not being an attorney she couldn't possibly have learned that people don't go to lawyers to be told what they can't do. And the truth is that there are lawyers that have shown that they can do what other lawyers have told them they can't do.)
No. The reason why Ldij "is not prying" is because she has read variations of bmo's plight throughout this subforum.
The clauses you refer to are fairly standard in divorce decrees, and reasonable people comply with such clauses.
However, when people don't comply, the bank does not care what the divorce decree states - the bank only cares about whose name is on the mortgage.
Bmo can try taking the ex to court ask that she be found in contempt - even if there was no explicit deadline for refinancing in the decree, just requiring it be done in a "reasonable" amount of time (<- vague = stupid, but let's save that for another rant), most people would think that 10 years is a more than reasonable amount of time to wait to become financially free from the former ball-and-chain. An actual hard deadline to refi or sell would be a good thing to pursue.
On the one hand, it might seem mean-spirited of bmo to take the ex to court while she is potentially terminally ill. On the other hand, there is the distinct possibility that as her health deteriorates, there will be more creditors. I doubt, if she has a will, that she's leaving the house to bmo (not that it matters if the state has a lien on it); if they were that amicable, bmo wouldn't be in this pickle. And if she doesn't have a will, well, intestate succession laws don't benefit ex-spouses.
Bmo needs to take action yesterday, and scrape up the $ to retain competent legal council.