SMART MONEY || Name was removed from mortgage during refinancing

Q. To make a long story short, I had to quit my job to raise my newborn son. My husband refinanced our home, and unknown to me for years, my name was taken off the mortgage, but my name is on the deed. I cannot afford and don’t want to refinance again. Is there any way to get my name back on the mortgage? My husband is seven years older than I am, and I don’t want a mess when he passes away.

A. I don’t understand how your name was taken off the mortgage. That can’t be – there is no way your name can be taken off without your written permission. Your name is on the deed, and that’s the good news.

I don’t know why you don’t want to refinance again, but I think what you’re saying is that when your husband passes away, you think you’ll have a mess. That’s very likely because getting a mortgage might be a difficult proposition since you still apparently have no income.

Start by finding out how your name was taken off the mortgage without your written permission. This is not legally possible, in my opinion, and it’s where you need to begin to solve this problem.

Q. I was in San Francisco recently and stopped into a retail pharmacy. There was a designated seating area for customers waiting for prescriptions. The seats were occupied by homeless people charging their personal devices (cellphones, computers, etc.). I complained to management with no response.

This was a corporate retail pharmacy chain. Do you think it’s a good business practice for store management to allow homeless people to occupy seats intended for paying customers and to use store electricity to charge their personal entertainment devices?

A. I can appreciate why you’re aggravated and why many stores have few seating areas due to the fact that they would attract the homeless (particularly if the store is open 24 hours). These people are seeking warmth and taking advantage of the management providing seating.

Do I think it’s a good business practice to allow homeless people to occupy store seats? Unfortunately, the seats are there for the public, and that includes the homeless. It’s a useless thing to complain about. Somebody’s got to put up with it, and it looks like you’re one of those people.

Send questions to bruce@brucewilliams.com. Questions of general interest will be answered in future columns. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided. The Bruce Williams Radio Show can now be heard 24/7 via iTunes and at www.taeradio.com. It is also available at www.brucewilliams.com.

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