Buying A Home But Divorce Not Finalized | Santa Clarita

There are many people that procrastinate on finalizing their divorce.  Sometimes it takes a certain something to compel you to do it.  And nothing is more compelling then when you find out that in order to close on your home, you have to have your divorce finalized.

This issues has come up in a couple of different ways lately.

The first example was with a client who had started the divorce process many years ago, but never completed it.  They called us to help them out because one of the spouses was trying to buy a home and the lender advised her she could not close until the divorce was finalized.

And when I say finalized, we are talking about the divorce judgment signed off by the judge.  In this particular circumstance, we were able to get her to court by motion so the judge could enter the judgment.

In this next example, our client was not so lucky.  We had recently filed divorce documents for her which starts the clock ticking on the 6 month waiting period in California before a judge can sign off on your divorce.

Since we had just filed, there was going to be a full 6 months before her divorce could be finalized.  The problem was that her husband had moved out and she was left to pay the mortgage on the home herself.  So she called the lender to attempt to modify the loan.

Guess what they told her?  Yep, they needed to see a divorce judgement signed off by the judge.  And because she had just filed, there was absolutely no way that was going to happen any time soon.

So if you are one of the families that started your divorce but never finished it or are just getting around to filing for divorce, make sure you understand the potential pitfalls that can be caused by delaying completing the process.