In an old mining town lost in the hills of the Badlands, a gruff loner took a wife.  This mail order bride cooked and cleaned for the old cuss, she did the laundry on a washboard, and she served the vittles piping hot – right off the fire.

Together they built an old ramshackle house, roofed with hoods from abandoned cars.  The plumbing was an old well that often smelled of sulphur.  For electricity, they tapped into a line that ran parallel to the old Givens Road where people often talked of hearing ghostly voices singing in a war-like chant.

After years of living in this squalor, however, the tired bride decided she’d had enough and packed her garbage bag suitcase to head to the suburbs of Chicago to find a real home.  The gruff, grizzled man was okay with her departure because she never quite seasoned the prairie dog just right.  He knew he’d do better on his own, plus he could keep all the proceeds from his mining claim for himself if she left.

His only concern was ownership of the home, so he found a notary to draw up paperwork for a quit claim deed where the wife relinquished her interest in the property.  She gladly signed, because frankly between the smell of the well water and the smell of old grumps-a-lot, she preferred to have the odors only in her memory.  She was glad to release her interest and signed right away.

Many peaceful years later the man decided to retire and sell his home … a home that he eventually remodeled so there was a real roof, real plumbing, and safe electricity.  He was excited to be rid of the property because he too wanted to live the rest of his life enjoying the conveniences of being near a populated area.  He was going to enjoy the sunshine of Florida!  To his dismay, however, he learned that he was unable to sell without his spouse’s signature.

The Quit Claim Deed was useless because he and his spouse never formally divorced.  Marital rights overruled the Quit Claim! The man stomped his foot and said, “Dag nab it!” and began his journey to the great lights of the Chicago suburbs to find his woman again to finally finish their business together.

The moral of this story?  If you decide to buy or sell a home, remember that both spouses will have rights to the property by marriage. For a spouse to have the ability to walk-away – or for the other spouse to have exclusive rights to the home – the divorce must be final AND the home loan should be refinanced in the name of the spouse keeping the home, thereby removing martial and monetary rights/responsibilities.

Happy trails to you!