Q: My husband bought a house two years ago. We signed some papers. I recently checked those papers and I noticed that a quitclaim was included in those documents. My husband says I needed to sign it because he was not going to be able to get the loan otherwise. Is this true? Is he being honest?

A: There are several possible reasons that you would have had to sign a quit claim deed.

One reason might have been was that your credit was so poor that the lender would not allow you to be on the loan to the home nor on title in order for your husband to refinance the home.

Another reason would be that your husband refinanced the home but simply wanted to take you off the title to the home.

A third reason might have been that your husband wanted to avoid having you on the title to the home and on the mortgage as well.

Usually a husband and wife will both own a home and will both obtain financing for the home together. If you obtain financing together, you are both responsible for the loan payments no matter what. That means if one of the spouses dies, the surviving spouse is entirely responsible for the loan.

My biggest concern is that you’re on the mortgage but don’t own the home. If you’re on the mortgage but he owns the home on his own, you’ve got some pretty big issues you’ll have to work through.

Before jumping to any conclusions, review the documents from the refinancing. You should see if the loan application was in your name and your husband’s name. You should determine whether the loan is in your name and your husband’s name. If you have the closing statement from the closing, you should see if your name is on the closing statement along with your husband’s. Then, if you have a copy of the promissory note from the closing, you should see if you signed it along with your husband.

Once you have all this information in hand, you can assess where you stand and whether there’s a problem or not. If your name was taken off the title to the home because your husband could not refinance the home with your name on title, you can always add your name back onto the title to the home.

Please speak to a real estate attorney to find out what, if any, options you have at this point if you suspect there is a problem at hand.