Transcript:
I got an email from a listener last week who explained that she and her now ex-boyfriend bought a house together. When they broke up, she quitclaimed her interest in the house to him, but he hasn’t taken her off of the mortgage.

“My credit is all tied up with that mortgage,” she wrote. “What can I do?”

Unfortunately, the answer is “Not much. The damage has already been done.”

When you quit claim your interest in a property, you transfer any interest you may have to someone else. I could quit claim my interest in the Brooklyn Bridge to you – but I don’t own any of it.

A big mistake homeowners make is thinking that if they use a quit claim deed form to hand over their ownership interest in the property, it will also remove them from the mortgage. It doesn’t. The only way to remove yourself from a mortgage is to sell your home or have the other person refinance on his own.

With practical, informative consumer advice, I’m Ilyce Glink, News-Talk 750 WSB