A married woman may hold her separate property, carry on business, sue and be sued the same as if she were single, except that in conveying or mortgaging her real estate she must be joined by her husband.
This " principle of aviticity " (osiseg, aviticum), which survived till 1848, was intended to preserve the large feudal estates as part of the new military system, but its ultimate effect was to hamper the development of the country by preventing the alienation, and therefore the mortgaging of lands, so long as any, however distant, scion of the original owning family survived.'
A husband owning a homestead is debarred from selling or mortgaging it without the joinder of his wife, and if the husband dies leaving a widow or minor children the homestead passes to either or to both jointly, and may be so held until the youngest child is twenty-one years of age or until the marriage or death of the widow.
If an ox were his property, and he wished to get needles and thread at the store, he thought it would be inconvenient and impossible soon to go on mortgaging some portion of the creature each time to that amount.
Borrowers should speak with a certified reverse mortgage counselor before they make any decisions regarding mortgaging their home.
