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Can wife sign husband's name on home re-finances? What are the different solutions?

Asked over 2 years ago - Redwood City, CA

My wife has been signing my name:
- to re-finance loans on our home.
- credit cards

I was not aware of this since I'm retired and let my wife handle all the mail and bills.
Once a month, I would write a check for the mortgage, $2800, and give it to her and she
would use it to pay the mortgage.

My wife is a real estate agent and, I guess, started buying real estate locally and in Las Vegas. She refinanced our home to do this, 2-3 times. The mortgage went from $400K to $714K. When the market went bad, she maxed out credit cards, that "someone" signed my name for, and told me she did not have any money ... and is still trying to keep the places she bought.

It is not my signature on the re-finance documents nor on a notary statement.

What different things should be done about this?

Additional information
Thank you both for your advice. Which path I take will determine the type of attorney to contact. Could there be a third path, other than suing my wife or "eating" the loans foisted on me? (The two tines of the "fork".) I am really ticked at the failure of the checks & balances that should have prevented this. It appears like everyone is at fault. Wife for doing this, the bank for allowing someone else to affix my signature, me for trusting "family". Is there such a solution where I pay some of the loan (to penalize me for being too trusting), the wife gives up some of the real estate she bought and also pays some of the loan (to penalize her for doing this), and the bank eats some of the loans (to penalize them for allowing someone else to affix my signature)?

What attorney specialty should I see? Real Estate, criminal, police, family, etc? or a mediator in what specialty? I'm in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Attorney answers (2)

Andrew Daniel Myers

Reputation Level 20

Answered over 2 years ago. Personal Injury Lawyer in North Andover, MA.

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See an attorney right away. The issues you raise are too complex for a quickie answer. Husband and wife do NOT automatically have authority to sign for each other. They would really and truly need a power of attorney to sign for one another in transactions of this nature. EXAMPLE: I had a real estate closing in which the buyers were a married couple. Before the closing, an emergency cropped up for the wife in which she had to travel to another state and simply could not be at the closing. On her way out of town, I had her execute a power of attorney giving authority to the husband to sign documents for her for that specific transaction only.

Those weren't your signatures, they were not affixed with your authority and the debt should not be foisted upon you. But, in that you were married, you have your work cut out for you invalidating all of this.

This answer is provided for informational purposes only. True legal advice can only be provided in an office consultation by an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction and with experience in the area of law in which your concern lies.

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Peter Robert Stone

Reputation Level 15

Answered over 2 years ago. Personal Injury Lawyer in Sacramento, CA.

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THis is unfortuately a Morton's Fork. "Morton's Fork is a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives (in other words, a dilemma), or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion. It is analogous to the expressions "between the devil and the deep blue sea" or "between a rock and a hard place." This is the opposite of the Buridan's Ass. The expression originates from a policy of tax collection devised by John Morton, Lord Chancellor of England in 1487, under the rule of Henry VII.[1]
His approach was that if the subject lived in luxury and had clearly spent a lot of money on himself, he obviously had sufficient income to spare for the king. Alternatively, if the subject lived frugally, and showed no sign of being wealthy, he must have substantial savings and could therefore afford to give it to the king. These arguments were the two prongs of the fork and regardless of whether the subject was rich or poor, he did not have a favorable choice.[2]

You can either accept the debt and pay for it, or turn your wife in or sue her (and perhaps notary, real estate and title people involved).

Neither choice is very pleasant. There may be other choices so I suggest you contact a local expert immediately to see what solutions may be brought to bear on your problem.

Good luck.

Peter :)

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