[update] Bank Told Us She Could Be Removed From Mortgage Without Our Authorization - Not So Fast!

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/s/q9uM3OVdlO

Hi I'm the guy with the 87 year old MIL who is part owner on the house and she (very likely) has dementia and is being groomed by a "friend" of hers 25 years younger than her. She has been trying to (been directed to) get her name off the mortgage while staying on the deed so that she can force a sale of the house but owe nothing to the mortgage.

The bank (M&T Bank) told us, 3 different reps including a supervisor, that she can do that (get off the mortgage) and there's nothing we can do about it as long as the bank determines that we can afford the mortgage without her.

Well... Not so fast!

We finally got the "release of liability" forms in the mail that she requested, but they came addressed to us as we are the first named on the account and they only put 2 peoples name on the mailings, not 3. Guess what? It says right on the forms that we have to fill them out, not her. We also have to provide all sorts of tax returns, documentation, notarized letter from a lawyer, as well as almost $800 in fees! We aren't going to do that... Lol.

The real kicker? It says right on the form that they also require a quitclaim deed form from a lawyer taking her off the title of the house in order to be released of liability on the mortgage. So, her plan isn't going to work out at all.

Right now, we're just going to ignore it I think. She may try to force a partition sale and maybe this is part of the process? She is working with a real estate lawyer and we have no clue what she is planning really. I guess we will address it when the time comes. She is really not in the right state of mind and cannot live alone safely which I think is what her end goal is.

ANYWAY... Point of this post was just to confirm that you all here on Reddit were right that someone can't just take their name off a mortgage like that! The people at the bank we talked to had no idea what they were telling us. And no it wasn't just a misunderstanding, they were very clear with what they were telling us. We are not shocked though because when we originally got the mortgage with this bank, they screwed things up left and right and it took us like 6 months to close.

Location: New York