Posted by Jimmy on November 23, 2005 at 09:42:51:
if you do soem backtracking through this board, you will find this issue addessed many times.
A joint owner cannot be “removed” by the other owner. Here are your choices:
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find this guy and get him to deed his interest back to the other jouint owner.
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if you can’t find him, or he refuses, they you can file a partition lawsuit, seeking a judicially-supervised sale of the property. I do not know if your friend can bid on the property at this sale.
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if this guy is dead, you have another option. find out if his estate was probated. if it was, contact the estate attorney and see if you can negotiate a purchase of the partial interest. if there is no administration, or it has closed, you can file a petition to open a probate in the county where the property is located. your objective here is to get someone appointed as Executor, so they have the legal authority to sell the interest.
good luck