Need to remove a name from title and mortgage. Is it possible?

[Andres M.]

Hello.  I co-own a property in Kissimmee, Florida with my father in-law (50-50).  We agreed for me to buy his share and so I'd like to remove his name from the title and mortgage so that everything is under just my name.  Is this possible to do?  If so, would a real estate attorney be able to help with this process?

Thanks in advance.

[Frank Chin]

We went thru this. 

We had an attorney handle the title part. If it is a purchase, with cash, there should be a P&S contract stipulating a certain price, so he'll have a basis to pay his capital gains tax, and for you to create a basis for the half you bought from him, for tax purposes. In our case, our mom in law gifted her half to us, as part of her estate planning, and our attorney had to handle the gifting paperwork. Ours involve creation of notes, and then forgiving them over several years, to take advantage of the annual limits on gifting.

As to the mortgage, you cannot just take his name off the mortgage. You'll have to get a new mortgage based on your creditworthiness alone as most mortgages out there are already sold to investors, the originating bank no longer owns them. It is granted originally based on the credit worthiness of you and him, the investors bought it that way, and you can change things mid stream. We were going to refi anyway, so we did it in conjunction with the refi. You can leave the mortgage as is, but he'll be on the hook if you don't pay, and he no longer has any interest in the property.