Co-borrower guarantee: what to do in case of divorce or separation of the couple?

Verified 20 November 2020 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

When a couple takes a mortgage, one consumer credit or a mortgage, the bank may require each of the members of the couple to pay the monthly installments of the loan. Each member of the couple guarantees the loan.

The divorce or separation of the couple does not terminate the loan agreement or the co-borrower guarantee.

However, the cancelation of the co-borrower guarantee can be obtained in several ways:

  • It is possible to prepay the credit (for example after the sale of the financed property). In this case, the total repayment of the loan terminates the guarantee of the 2 co-borrowers.
  • It is possible to ask the bank to disassociate one of the co-borrowers, the other continuing alone to repay the mortgage and to be the guarantor of it.
  • The bank may be asked to cancel the guarantee of one of the co-borrowers by offering a new guarantor or an additional guarantee (mortgage(surety). The bank will ask for equivalent guarantees.