ConfusedPartner
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
My ex wife and I separated at the beginning of the year without any lawyers. I bought a house with money I had prior to the marriage, but I put her on the deed since we were happily married at the time I bought it. I am the only one on the mortgage, she has terrible credit. Our agreement was that I would move out of our home, and she would stay there for some unspecified period of time, implied to be between 6 months and a year. The agreement was that she would stay in the house and be responsible for the mortgage during that time. After she moved out, the house would be mine to do with as I saw fit, either living in it or selling it.
When I moved out, we were current on the mortgage, but the house was underwater and needed repairs to be sellable, so the most likely scenario after she moved out would have been a shortsale or similar.
Instead of following through on her agreement, she stopped paying the mortgage around March. She knew that in Florida foreclosures take a really long time (sometimes 2 years), and she also knew her actions would only affect my credit, not hers. I found out she stopped about 4 months after March when I checked my credit report and found a severely delinquent mortgage on it.
For a variety of personal reasons, I didn't push the issue at that time, and she's been living in the house without paying anything for it since March. I recently told her that, per our original agreement, it's been a year and I want to disentangle myself from her financially, and rebuild my credit. I asked her to be out of the house by the end of January, about 45 days from now.
That's about the amount of time a Deed in Lieu would take to go all the way through. Now that the mortgage is so delinquent, I would like to just give the house back to the bank and move on.
However, my ex is refusing to move. She claims that I have no right to ask her to move since she's on the deed, and says she intends to stay in the house until the sheriff's office shows up at the door and tells her to vacate. That could be over a year from now.
First question: is she right, that I have no legal avenue to force her out?
Next, if I proceed with the deed in lieu with the bank, what will happen? I know the whole point of a DIL is that I'm voluntarily giving the property back without a fuss, which I personally would love to do. She, on the other hand, may not cooperate.
How can I get this freeloader off my credit?
I don't know if this is relevant to the facts, but she claims she can't move out because she doesn't have the money. She works an extremely part time job making I think 1500 or so per month. However, I put her through 2 separate graduate degrees while we were married and I was working. She's a capable and educated woman, with experience in the insurance industry, and she's simply choosing not to work full time. She CAN get a job and move out, but she's freeloading instead.
What are my options here?
My ex wife and I separated at the beginning of the year without any lawyers. I bought a house with money I had prior to the marriage, but I put her on the deed since we were happily married at the time I bought it. I am the only one on the mortgage, she has terrible credit. Our agreement was that I would move out of our home, and she would stay there for some unspecified period of time, implied to be between 6 months and a year. The agreement was that she would stay in the house and be responsible for the mortgage during that time. After she moved out, the house would be mine to do with as I saw fit, either living in it or selling it.
When I moved out, we were current on the mortgage, but the house was underwater and needed repairs to be sellable, so the most likely scenario after she moved out would have been a shortsale or similar.
Instead of following through on her agreement, she stopped paying the mortgage around March. She knew that in Florida foreclosures take a really long time (sometimes 2 years), and she also knew her actions would only affect my credit, not hers. I found out she stopped about 4 months after March when I checked my credit report and found a severely delinquent mortgage on it.
For a variety of personal reasons, I didn't push the issue at that time, and she's been living in the house without paying anything for it since March. I recently told her that, per our original agreement, it's been a year and I want to disentangle myself from her financially, and rebuild my credit. I asked her to be out of the house by the end of January, about 45 days from now.
That's about the amount of time a Deed in Lieu would take to go all the way through. Now that the mortgage is so delinquent, I would like to just give the house back to the bank and move on.
However, my ex is refusing to move. She claims that I have no right to ask her to move since she's on the deed, and says she intends to stay in the house until the sheriff's office shows up at the door and tells her to vacate. That could be over a year from now.
First question: is she right, that I have no legal avenue to force her out?
Next, if I proceed with the deed in lieu with the bank, what will happen? I know the whole point of a DIL is that I'm voluntarily giving the property back without a fuss, which I personally would love to do. She, on the other hand, may not cooperate.
How can I get this freeloader off my credit?
I don't know if this is relevant to the facts, but she claims she can't move out because she doesn't have the money. She works an extremely part time job making I think 1500 or so per month. However, I put her through 2 separate graduate degrees while we were married and I was working. She's a capable and educated woman, with experience in the insurance industry, and she's simply choosing not to work full time. She CAN get a job and move out, but she's freeloading instead.
What are my options here?