Appellate Practice Attorney serving New York, NY
Assuming you own the house jointly (most of the time married people own real property as "tenants by the entirety"), your wife cannot use the home as collateral without your permission. She can use what is known as her survivorship interest (each of you has what is known as a survivorship interest in the home, which is basically the value of your potential ownership of the home if your spouse dies first; depending on your relative ages and health, it is worth very much less than the value of your home, and it is very unlikely that any bail bondsman would accept your wife's survivorship interest as the only security). It is far more likely that she forged your name on a security agreement, in which case you would not be liable on it as long as you take prompt action to challenge the agreement, in court if need be. However, there is a very real possibility that your wife would get into a great deal of trouble, and possibly face criminal prosecution, if her forgery becomes known. If you know about her forgery, and don't do anything about it, you may be deemed to have ratified the security agreement, and would then be as liable on it as your wife.
Answered on Jan 31st, 2013 at 10:36 AM