Husband passed leaving me a mess HELP PLEASE

[lookitsmary]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am asking for a friend. She is 74 years old and has been trying to deal with this situation for the three years since her husband passed away. It seems that as an honorable man 34 years in the Navy as a one star admiral Fighter pilot he was unable to function in the civilian world. He made bad decisions, financial decisions. My friend and her husband lived separately for the most part him in St Croix and her here in Florida and they commuted back and forth. They kept their monies separate. They were together for approximately 30 years. He passed away a little over three years ago of cancer. He had a home in Sebastian Florida where she is staying now. This home he purchased himself with her on the deed only. He then quick claimed the home deed from him and her to just her. She, shortly after his death, began getting collection calls for debt he had acquired in an amount better than 200K. She is devastated by this. Now she is living in the home in question and she is paying the mortgage although some of the acquired debt he had was joint accounts that he did not pay as he led her to believe he was doing. Her Mortgage is an adjustable and she would like it to be fixed or at the least make the payments reflect on her credit to improve her score, but with the aforementioned debt her credit score (650) will not allow her to refinance. The property is now held in the estate of her husband (she states he had nothing other than that home in the end) so she is not understanding what estate. What can she do to render this situation? Is there any way for her to obtain a fixed 15 year mortgage. Payments have NEVER been late on this specific mortgage. The property is upside down as far as equity goes. Thank you in advance for any help you can give us.

 

[FlyingRon]

There are contradictory statements here that she either is not relaying to you properly or you do not understand.
She needs to be talking to a lawyer to get the estate straightened out. But understand a few things. A marriage isn't just a club membership that the two parties can live independently free from entanglements. If he alone signed on for the debts, she is not responsible for them. However if they are marital joint debts, she is. Who lived in what house is immaterial.

 

[lookitsmary]

Understood. It was her ignorance to some of the joint debt. she did talk to an attorney but like I said she is paying the mortgage that is in his name and she would like to get the mortgage in her name so that it will help her rebuild her credit. The joint debt she is paying she realizes that she was stupid for believing he was paying for things that were in both their names. She knows she should have been up on all of it but she wasn't and hind sight is 20/20 Love is blind there were plenty of things this man did that she didn't know such as getting a job that paid 100K a year and didn't know for 3 years that he had gotten fired from. this is just the tip of the ice burg so much was crazy and I just thought I would ask. She didn't like the attorney she spoke with as he didn't tend to her the way she felt he should. She is 74 years old and thinks the world owes her for the injustice this man did to her over 30 years.