Father passed - friend on title, but not mortgage

[Robert olohan]

Jurisdiction

Delaware

My father passed in December of 2018. Since then my sister and I are the administrators of my fathers estate. My father's friend is on the title as "joint sole survivor" which we understand the friend immediately is the sole surviving owner of the house. That's not the issue.

The issue is the loan through pennymac is only in my father's name and we want his name off of the loan. If his friend needs to refinance or sell the house in order to do that, that's on the friend. Pennymac in the meantime has been sharing private documents with the friend which we believe is violating the privacy act. We have shared the county signed documentation with pennymac showing we are the administrators and we explained the friend does not have any legal right over the estate and that this friend needs to be taken off of the loan however its required. To date pennymac has done nothing to force the friend into putting the loan in her name.

1. Is pennymac in violation by sharing our fathers loan information with the friend especially since she has no legal right as she isnt the administrator of the estate?

2. As administrators does my sister and I have a right to say we want out father's loan to terminate? There is no reason why the friend cant refinance under her own name if she wants to keep the house.

3. We are putting a letter in writing outlining all of the issues and timeline we have had with pennymac and sharing it with pennymac's legal department. The letter will request a timeline of actions pennymac plans to take in order to terminate my fathers loan and transition the new loan under the friend.

4. If pennymac does not provide a timeline of actions and continues to ignore the administrators of the estate, do we legally have any case against pennymac?

Thank you in advance for your time and help!

 

[Zigner]

I'm not sure why you believe that the lender has to "transition the new loan under the friend." Your father's estate is responsible for his debts, including the debt for the house.

 

[Robert olohan]

I'm not sure why you believe that the lender has to "transition the new loan under the friend." Your father's estate is responsible for his debts, including the debt for the house.

Correct, but the friend is on the title so she now owns the house, but doesnt have a mortgage for the house. What is it we need to do? We don't want a loan in our fathers name open and we don't own the house.

 

[Zigner]

Correct, but the friend is on the title so she now owns the house, but doesnt have a mortgage for the house. What is it we need to do? We don't want a loan in our fathers name open and we don't own the house.

The estate should make arrangements to pay the debt.

EDIT: The estate actually just needs to deal with it. Whether the debt is paid or not depends on the full facts in the matter. It might be worth it to discuss this with a local estate attorney.

 

[Robert olohan]

This makes no sense. So you are saying the estate, the children of the deceased, should pay the monthly mortgage while the friend owns the house and lives in it for free?

Makes absolutely no sense. If what you say is true then we should be able to sell the house.

 

[Zigner]

This makes no sense. So you are saying the estate, the children of the deceased, should pay the monthly mortgage while the friend owns the house and lives in it for free?

Makes absolutely no sense. If what you say is true then we should be able to sell the house.

The estate is not the children of the deceased. Please talk to a local attorney to help you better understand the process.

 

[Robert olohan]

It's not the children per say, but the little money in the estate, +/- $4,000, that shouldnt go to paying the mortgage if someone else automatically owns the house the moment our father passed away.

Any help on how to handle the mortgage company would be appreciated by anyone. Thank you in advance.

 

[Zigner]

It's not the children per say, but the little money in the estate, +/- $4,000, that shouldnt go to paying the mortgage if someone else automatically owns the house the moment our father passed away.

Any help on how to handle the mortgage company would be appreciated by anyone. Thank you in advance.

I don't know what you want to hear from us. You really need to talk to an attorney.

 

[Robert olohan]

I'd like to hear from someone else specifically on how to get my fathers name off of a mortgage. Very simple straight forward question.

 

[Zigner]

I'd like to hear from someone else specifically on how to get my fathers name off of a mortgage. Very simple straight forward question.

The question is straight forward but the answer is far from it.

 

[zddoodah]

My father passed in December of 2018. Since then my sister and I are the administrators of my fathers estate. My father's friend is on the title as "joint sole survivor" which we understand the friend immediately is the sole surviving owner of the house.

"Joint" and "sole" are contradictory terms. Does the deed actually say "joint sole survivor"?

The issue is the loan through pennymac is only in my father's name and we want his name off of the loan. If his friend needs to refinance or sell the house in order to do that, that's on the friend. Pennymac in the meantime has been sharing private documents with the friend which we believe is violating the privacy act. We have shared the county signed documentation with pennymac showing we are the administrators and we explained the friend does not have any legal right over the estate and that this friend needs to be taken off of the loan however its required.

Your father's name isn't coming off the loan. The loan obligation is an obligation of his estate. If the loan gets paid, then that obligation will be extinguished. It will also be extinguished if the friend refinances, but he is under no legal obligation to do so. Have you talked with him about refinancing? If so, what did he say? If not, why not? Keep in mind that, depending on the terms of the loan, if the estate defaults, it's possible that the lender's exclusive recourse will be to foreclose, and it wouldn't matter at this point if your father's credit gets trashed.

To date pennymac has done nothing to force the friend into putting the loan in her name.

Probably because it has no conceivable reason to do any such thing.

Is pennymac in violation by sharing our fathers loan information with the friend especially since she has no legal right as she isnt the administrator of the estate?

No way to know without knowing what information and documents were shared.

As administrators does my sister and I have a right to say we want out father's loan to terminate?

You have the right to say just about anything you like, but just because you want something and say that you want it doesn't mean you're entitled to get it.

If pennymac does not provide a timeline of actions and continues to ignore the administrators of the estate, do we legally have any case against pennymac?

No, and I'm at a loss to understand why you think the lender has any obligation to provide any sort of timeline.

What is it we need to do?

As administrators of the estate, you should retain the services of a local probate attorney. It is unfortunate, that your father left you with this situation, but what's done is done. Unfortunately, you may have to keep the estate open a long time to see this through.

So you are saying the estate, the children of the deceased, should pay the monthly mortgage while the friend owns the house and lives in it for free?

Makes absolutely no sense. If what you say is true then we should be able to sell the house.

It makes perfect sense. We obviously have no way of knowing why your father set things up the way he did, but I'm guessing he did this without soliciting legal advice. He set this up such that the estate has the obligation to pay the loan but no interest in the property. Maybe that's what he wanted, or maybe he just made a mistake because he didn't know what he was doing.

If I were in your position, I'd be talking with an attorney about the consequences to the estate of allowing the mortgage to go into default.

I'd like to hear from someone else specifically on how to get my fathers name off of a mortgage. Very simple straight forward question.

The question is straight forward but the answer is far from it.

Well...I think the answer is quite straightforward. The lender has no obligation whatsoever to let your father/his estate off the mortgage. Why would it want to do that?