Must you refinance mortgage to add spouse's name to deed?

You do not need to refinance your mortgage in order to add your spouse's name to the deed to your home.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Tina, you're on News 96.5, go ahead.

Tina: Hi there. Good morning. How are you?

Attorney Tom Olsen: I'm doing great. Thank you.

Tina: Good. Thanks for taking my call. I think an easy question. I just don't know the answer, I know you do. My husband is not on my mortgage and I don't really want to refinance, I've got a good interest rate. God forbid, I'm just a planner. If something would have happened to me, how do I go about getting him like-- I don't really know how to-- I just want my house to go to the state or whatever, but how I go about-

Attorney Tom Olsen: Tina, we know that your husband is not on the mortgage, however, is he on the deed? Is he a co-owner of this house with you?

Tina: No, he's not, but he's helping me pay for it.

Attorney Tom Olsen: How long have you all been married?

Tina: 15 years.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay. Tina, if you're in agreement, what we should do is do a deed where we add his name to the deed so you are co-owners. That way, if you passed away it would automatically go to him, if he passed away, it would automatically go to you. Tina, to add his name to the deed, you do not need to get your permission from the mortgage company or refinance. It's just done.

Tina: Good. They were trying to get me to refinance.

Attorney Tom Olsen: No. Absolutely not. No. Tina, we could do that. By the way, Tina, I've been a lawyer for over 35 years and I do occasionally learn something new and I learned something new a few weeks ago that that would help you, and that this, State of Florida does not have income taxes. How do we raise money in Florida? Well, one of the ways we do it is doc stamps where we have to pay the State of Florida doc stamps when we do deeds. I just learned a few weeks ago, and historically, I paid doc stamps on deeds between husbands and wives, but when it's your home and we do a deed between you and your husband, we don't have to put doc stamps on that deed. Good news for you, Tina.

Tina: Yes. That's great news.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Yes. Call me at my office next week. I'll be happy to assist you all with that.

Tina: Okay. Can you give me your number real quick?

Attorney Tom Olsen: The is the Olsen Law Group in Orlando 407-423-5561, or you can email me through our website lawtube.com like YouTube, but lawtube.com.