I'm on vacation, so I'll keep it brief. 1. Land register and financing must be separated. The owner is basically irrelevant to the bank – they can auction the house. 2. If the bank becomes aware that a borrower’s creditworthiness has significantly deteriorated, according to the terms and conditions there is a right to terminate. Therefore, they do not have to let the ex out (in private cases, I have never seen this happen in reality as long as the installments are paid). 3. Swapping a borrower in an existing contract is prohibited (account clarity according to KWG). 4. Solution: release of liability for the ex. Guarantee by a third party. Then the financing can run for the full 20 years, since the bank practically has two debtors. 5. If the bank simply doesn’t want to, then you have lost. In such a case, I would make a big deal out of it.