My ex and I bought a house together. Now he is wanting to keep the house. How do we go about getting my name off of the loan? Does he need to refinance?
A divorce is a court order. It may award the home to one person and may specify who is to make the payments, but that is not a court order extending to the lender. The lender will not in all likelihood release someone from the debt. There is no incentive to release a person who may be able to pay at some future time.
A refinance in one persons name would mean they qualified for a loan and a new loan was produced, paying off the loan you have now. That would be one way to accomplish this. The lender may accept, with the agreement of all parties, a lump sum payment as well, so a $100,000 mortgage gets a $50,000 payment and the lender may agree then to release one person. In some states, what actually happens is the person staying buys the interest of the person leaving. The effect is the same as there is one person left owning the home and owing the loan.
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A divorce is a court order. It may award the home to one person and may specify who is to make the payments, but that is not a court order extending to the lender. The lender will not in all likelihood release someone from the debt. There is no incentive to release a person who may be able to pay at some future time. 