What are my rights as a joint owner when my ex is living in the home and has stopped making the payments?

J.M.A. is correct that a crucial question is whether or not you have anything more than an informal agreement.  Have you been separated since 10/07 without either of you filing for divorce or legal separation?  Or is your agreement about the house part of a Marital Settlement Agreement?  Or just an interlocutory order?  Your rights and options are quite different depending on which of those situations you are in.  I could write  long treatise on what might be your rights and options in each of these situations, but without more detail about exactly what situation you are in, I still might not give you the information you are looking for.  I think J.M.A. is right that you should probably hire an attorney, although you may only need a limited scope representation, rather than incurring the expense of hiring an attorney to take on the entire matter.  If you would like a free half-hour consultation to get into a little more detail about your options and whether retaining counsel is the way to go, please feel free to give me a call.  My firm, Libris Solutions, is listed on Yellowpages.com and most other online directories.

I need to know what the payment arrangement was between you and your husband.  If you have a informal agreement that he was supposed to be paying for the home while living there and now he cannot afford to, you are in trouble.  Because you own the home jointly, the bank can come after you or him for the entire amount owed.  If the bank forecloses on the property, it may seek a deficiency (i.e. the difference in the sale of the house and what is owed on the loan) against you or him.  In this situation, you may qualify for a mortgage modification which would reduce your mortgage payments and get you out of default for now. Or, you can sell the home through a short sale to avoid a deficiency judgment and be done with the house for good.  From your perspective, it makes more sense, if you do not care about the house, to do a short sale as this will not look as bad as a foreclosure on your credit.  As of now, your credit is taking a big hit as a result of the default.  If your husband is not paying while living there, he does not have an obligation to pay you unless there is some court order as you are both joint owners.  I suggest hiring a lawyer to discuss how you want to proceed - i.e. keep the home or let it go.

1. Make a financial decision as to what really is causing the problem. If ex can not pay because of being out of work etc., then it is a joint problem.

2. You will be jointly responsible.

3. If it is a purchase money loan (not refinanced), then lender can not come after you for deficiency.

4. Your options are: find money and cure the default or request loan modification or do a short sale with the agreement of all parties (ex and lender) or deed in lieu of forelclsure or the bank will foreclose.