
Quoting
Mr. Knowitall
You can ask her to pay. You can commence legal proceedings in the divorce court to attempt to enforce the judgment. I'm not seeing much else.
Why is she having trouble refinancing? Is it a matter of her having insufficient income to get the loan?
It sounds like the judgment requires the ex- to pay $40K, and awards the home to her. If that's the case, even if she sells the house and recovers equity of less than the (likely) $80,000 estimated at the time of divorce, or even if she recovers little to no equity, she would still owe the full $40,000. Of course, that only bring us back to the first question -- she can only pay the money if she in fact has the money.