Traditionally, married couples often get together to work out a mortgage payment plan for a house that they both intend to live in. But what happens if the marriage breaks down? Who then becomes responsible for the mortgage and where does it go? These are common questions that are asked when such a scenario arises.

Most married couples will have a joint or shared mortgage payment scheme, which makes the combination of divorce and mortgage a complicated affair. There are a number of steps that can be taken to solve this issue. The easiest step is to sell the house and split the money, however it may not be as simple as this as there are usually a lot of mitigating factors involved.

If you take the divorce and the mortgage through the divorce courts, there can be number of possible outcomes. As each divorce case is totally unique, there is no general rule that can be applied. But in the majority cases, the court will attempt to award each party one half the value of all assets, this means that if you can't reach a fair agreement, then the asset will be sold and both of you will receive an equal share of the remaining money. However, if both of you agree for one to retain the house and to continue with the mortgage, then that would allow one of you to stay put. If it's you that is interested in retaining the home, then you may have to pay out your partner’s share of what's already been paid into the mortgage.

If one person does decide to carry on with the mortgage then it is advisable to have your name taken off the mortgage deeds, because if your partner was to fall behind on the payments you may still be held accountable. It will be your name on the paperwork regardless as to whether or not you still live there. Debt collectors do not recognize divorce as a way out of debt, so this must be kept in mind when filing for divorce as your mortgage provider will still demand monthly payments unless they are informed otherwise.