Help my Ex is killing my credit score

[brcwolfe]

The title pretty much says it all. I had a mortgage with my ex. when I filed chapter 13 I surrendered the home and my ex moved in. Now after calling the mortgage company to find out what I needed to do to resolve the fact that the account is still showing up in my name they help me out by updating my credit report. The problem is that they updated my credit report to show that my ex has only paid the mortage on time maybe three times over the last two years with quite a few over 60's. My credit score dropped 120 points overnight and I was planning to try to buy a new house in the next coplue of months. How should this be reported on my credit?

[lrprn]

The title pretty much says it all. I had a mortgage with my ex. when I filed chapter 13 I surrendered the home and my ex moved in. Now after calling the mortgage company to find out what I needed to do to resolve the fact that the account is still showing up in my name they help me out by updating my credit report. The problem is that they updated my credit report to show that my ex has only paid the mortage on time maybe three times over the last two years with quite a few over 60's. My credit score dropped 120 points overnight and I was planning to try to buy a new house in the next coplue of months. How should this be reported on my credit?

Bummer, brcwolfe. A question first...you surrendered the house in your divorce, but was your name ever officially taken off the mortgage loan?

[HHM]

This is a wierd dilemma. First, were you joint debtors on the mortgage?

Under normal circumstances, if you were to surrender your home in a chapter 13, it would be a defacto foreclosure. However, you have a joint account with your ex...under the normal divorce, the only way to get your name off the mortgage is for your ex to refi the mortgage on their own.

Unfortunately, I really don't know how this should play out. However, I think the divorce side wins out over the BK side on this one...since you filed independantly of your spouse, and its a joint debt, and a mortgage is a secured debt, you didn't "really" get rid of it in the BK since the mortgage company could not really foreclose out of your BK.

In the end, you need your ex to refi the mortgage out of your name, and the only way to do that is to go back into divorce court and get a court order.