A separation and a foreclosure are separate processes with separate timetables, and the foreclosure does not wait for the other to resolve. That mismatch is what causes the most damage, because family matters can take a long time and a court sale date does not move to accommodate them.
What the mortgage does not care about
A lender is generally not concerned with who agreed to pay what between you. If you both signed, you are both generally on the hook, whatever was decided verbally or even in writing between yourselves. One person's undertaking to cover the mortgage does not release the other from the lender's perspective.
So "he said he would pay it" or "she agreed to take it on" is an issue between the two of you. It is not a defence to a foreclosure.
The practical order of things
Find out where the mortgage actually stands. Payments may have stopped without your knowing. Ask the lender directly — as a borrower you are entitled to information about your own mortgage.
Get your own legal advice. Your own, not a shared adviser. Where interests diverge, one lawyer cannot properly serve both of you.
Deal with the deadline first. If a sale date is approaching, that is the immediate problem. Property questions between you can often be worked out from sale proceeds; they are much harder to work out after a court sale has set the number.
Why acting together usually beats winning
This is the part worth saying plainly. When co-owners fight while a foreclosure runs, the arrears, interest and legal costs keep growing and come out of the proceeds — which is to say, out of both your shares. It is entirely possible to win an argument about a house and both end up with less.
A sale agreed between you, at a proper price, on your timetable, usually leaves more on the table for both parties than a court-run sale after months of deadlock. That remains true even when the separation is bitter, and it is worth putting to the other side in exactly those terms.
Where we stop
We deal with the property side. Matrimonial property, support and the division of assets are family law questions, and Alberta has its own framework for them. A family lawyer should look at both together — a property decision that works for the foreclosure can be poor for the family matter, and the reverse.
Questions people ask
General information about the Alberta foreclosure process — not legal or financial advice, and nothing here guarantees an outcome. Every file is different.