Would you ask for joint title on a condo DH bought when he was single and in this circumstance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I'm not sure I understand you case for putting you on the title for the 340k condo, unless joint money is also going into paying the mortgage (if so, then yes you should be on the title and the mortgage).
Agree you should be on the title to the condo you helped pay off.
Assume you are on the title to the condo in which you currently live?

Joint money? Money is fungible. They are married. Do they split the electricity bill and groceries according to who takes shorter showers and likes bottled water?

She needs to be on the the title because it is a CF if he dies. Probate will cost much more than any title fees!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I'm not sure I understand you case for putting you on the title for the 340k condo, unless joint money is also going into paying the mortgage (if so, then yes you should be on the title and the mortgage).
Agree you should be on the title to the condo you helped pay off.
Assume you are on the title to the condo in which you currently live?

Joint money? Money is fungible. They are married. Do they split the electricity bill and groceries according to who takes shorter showers and likes bottled water?

She needs to be on the the title because it is a CF if he dies. Probate will cost much more than any title fees!

quoted PP here. If the 340k condo is self-funded, i.e. the rental income covers the mortgage, then I think there's a case to be made that it's just "his" property.

ITA with others that things should be clarified in the event that he dies. I am not a T&E lawyer but I assume he can pass the condo onto her in a will.

[Anonymous]

I honestly don't understand the concept of "his property" once you're married. You are a family. What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine....right? It really freaks me out to read these things.

OP made more $ for years, presumably contributing more to the household than her DH. She put her own money into paying off the mortgage on one of the condos. Now she is staying home to raise their child. There should be no mine and yours in this situation.

It's alarming that your DH does not accurately recall that you paid off half of one of his condos. Very, very alarming. My office mate was in a similar situation with his ex in a divorce proceeding. He put $20K down on a refi on a property she owned before marriage so they would get a lower rate. When they divorced 15 years later, she claimed the entire asset was hers, and he was granted no % of the equity on it. He could even show the withdrawal from his bank at time of refinance, but she claimed he used that $$ to buy furniture for them. She never put him on the title, and he never thought they'd divorce.

[Anonymous]

I'm in a similar bind, but on the flip side. I own a condo, about half its value is mortgaged and half equity. I also have a car, half equity half still paying off car loan. DH comes to marriage with no vehicle and $13K in credit card debt. Also no liquid savings.

What he does have is a federal pension. He's 20 years in. I have no pension and no retirement savings.

We're paying off his cc debt and our own mortgage on the house we just bought jointly. The condo makes a small income as a rental; otherwise it covers its own costs.

He wants to be added to the title, but says there's no way to add me to his pension. He says he'll support us both when we're retired, but the condo is my only nest egg and I don't want to give away half of it when I don't have a guarantee I'd have a piece of his pension.

Wonder if any of this could be covered by a postnup?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a similar bind, but on the flip side. I own a condo, about half its value is mortgaged and half equity. I also have a car, half equity half still paying off car loan. DH comes to marriage with no vehicle and $13K in credit card debt. Also no liquid savings.

What he does have is a federal pension. He's 20 years in. I have no pension and no retirement savings.

We're paying off his cc debt and our own mortgage on the house we just bought jointly. The condo makes a small income as a rental; otherwise it covers its own costs.

He wants to be added to the title, but says there's no way to add me to his pension. He says he'll support us both when we're retired, but the condo is my only nest egg and I don't want to give away half of it when I don't have a guarantee I'd have a piece of his pension.

Wonder if any of this could be covered by a postnup?

I'm in a similar flip side situation as well. I owned a house for 10 years prior to marrying DH. We lived in it together fir 4 years and then bought a new home together and each out down equal amount if money for the down payment. The house I owned is now a rental and DH wants to refinance to save money which would mean adding his name to the mortgage. I'm reluctant to do this since it is mynest egg and my parents gave me a chunk of money with which to buy the house. I have some cash from an inheritance that I'm thinking about using to pay off the mortgage and call it a day. The way I see it is that even though DHs name us not on the mortgage, he is still benefitting from the rental income. I know this sounds counter to marriage , but you never know if a marriage will end in divorce and I feel a strong need to protect my nest egg.

[Anonymous]

"He wants to be added to the title, but says there's no way to add me to his pension. He says he'll support us both when we're retired, but the condo is my only nest egg and I don't want to give away half of it when I don't have a guarantee I'd have a piece of his pension. "

You may have spousal rights to his pension that your DH can't deny.

Check opm.gov for info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH has a 1BD condo ($340k) from when he was single, so he's the only one on that mortgage (new $280k mortgage due to refi cash out). The $220k condo we live in now is paid off (I had 120k in savings and DH refinanced his condo and took out money from it to out in 100k). DH has another 1BD condo that is worth 35k (in a different city, I wish DC housing prices were like that!). It used to have a loan of $15,000 that I paid off from my checking account when we were engaged because I thought it didn't make financial sense to be paying interest on it when I had more than enough to pay it off.

We both think household income and expenses are communal. I used to make about 40-50k more than DH until I had a baby and became a stay at home mom recently. It's the first time I am without income and I feel that maybe I'm not protecting myself in case we ever end up divorced in the future (no one thinks they will get divorced at the altar but things happen). We have one joint account with 60k but DH wanted to keep his three individual checking accounts. For condo #1 he has a bank account with 8k in it, for condo #2 he has a separate checking account with $15k. He said he didn't want to close those two condo related accounts because that's how he's tracking how much our rental income and repair costs are. I used to think that was fine until it occurred to me that all the rental income we're making just stays there and the balances keep on growing and if it ever came to a divorce, a third party would think that his two condos are his sole property, especially since the mortgage comes out of that individual account and rental income is not transferred to the joint account.

DH says everything we own is "ours" but funny enough, when I potentially tested it by saying how about we retitle the 340k condo in both our names, his response was "would the bank let you do that" to which I replied "yes, i checked" and then silence. knowing his personality, now it's up to me to push it if I really want it, his preference is to just leave it as is saying "isn't it a lot of paperwork". Even the 35k condo, when he talks about how much money it's making him and I correct him that actually it hasn't yet, since I put in the 15k and the rental income has not yet covered that amount and the property value went down, he reacts surprised, saying didn't he pay off the balance with money he pulled out of his condo refinancing, not that I gave it to him from my individual checking account. See what happens after a few years? People remember things differently!!

Anyhow, since we're married, does it even matter whether the 340k condo and the 35k condo are not titled jointly? Would you push it so that one or the other or both gets retitled?

You're testing your husband? And you think divorce is a "you never know" kind of thing? Bottom line is if he brought that into the marriage, that's his if you split. The equity accumulated before you married is his. Any equity accumulated during the marriage is arguably split. Whether or not you are on title doesn't mean anything in that scenario.

That is almost certainly incorrect.

If he signs a deed so they now hold his condo as tenants by the entirety (typical of married couples in many states), they are joint owners with right of survivorship and if he dies his share/equity goes to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a similar bind, but on the flip side. I own a condo, about half its value is mortgaged and half equity. I also have a car, half equity half still paying off car loan. DH comes to marriage with no vehicle and $13K in credit card debt. Also no liquid savings.

What he does have is a federal pension. He's 20 years in. I have no pension and no retirement savings.

We're paying off his cc debt and our own mortgage on the house we just bought jointly. The condo makes a small income as a rental; otherwise it covers its own costs.

He wants to be added to the title, but says there's no way to add me to his pension. He says he'll support us both when we're retired, but the condo is my only nest egg and I don't want to give away half of it when I don't have a guarantee I'd have a piece of his pension.

Wonder if any of this could be covered by a postnup?

you should read up on OPM site about feeral pensions. As long as they know he is married youh have a say in the pension. The key is, they need to know you are married. go to OPM.gov and TSP website to se how the retirement and TSP accounts work.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe you paid off the condo without getting your name on the title. Do that now, and demand that you are on the bank account the rental income goes into
, if he "can't remember" u paid it off, go back to your bank records and show him!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha, he's good! He's got you paying off his condo for him.

+1000

[Anonymous]

I am shocked that the mortgage company said okay. Do you actually have the letter authorizing it in and. Absent th letter it is definitely a technical default of your mortgage o be added.

Why not add your name to the bank account sand not the property?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would. I am on the title, but not mortgage, for our rental condo (that DH had 9 years prior to marriage) and house. I came to the marriage with pretty much nothing, but also no debt (he had school loan).

[Anonymous]

OP, you sound greedy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I'm not sure I understand you case for putting you on the title for the 340k condo, unless joint money is also going into paying the mortgage (if so, then yes you should be on the title and the mortgage).
Agree you should be on the title to the condo you helped pay off.
Assume you are on the title to the condo in which you currently live?

Joint money? Money is fungible. They are married. Do they split the electricity bill and groceries according to who takes shorter showers and likes bottled water?

She needs to be on the the title because it is a CF if he dies. Probate will cost much more than any title fees!

quoted PP here. If the 340k condo is self-funded, i.e. the rental income covers the mortgage, then I think there's a case to be made that it's just "his" property.

ITA with others that things should be clarified in the event that he dies. I am not a T&E lawyer but I assume he can pass the condo onto her in a will.

If the 340k condo is self-funded, are they accounting all other assets & incomes separately? If self-funded, you can treat it as a CD or bond, then, accruing interest and needing no additional income. Do they share other accounts or is this special somehow?

Yes, you can pass through a will but then you must go through probate and pay a lawyer. If she is on the deed, then she files a $20 document with the county and it is hers, immediately and no fuss.

Either everything should be in a living trust, or you have joint accounts, beneficiaries, and rights of survivor-ship set appropriately. Otherwise thousands go to lawyers to simply execute you $75 will.

[Anonymous]

I'd be more unhappy being on the mortgage, since he still owes so much. I think that would be a bigger risk, so, no, I wouldn't push it.