Posted by Bill Jacobsen on April 02, 2007 at 11:59:25:
I am not a lawyer but do recognize that you will need a lawyer if you and the other party can’t come to an agreement.
You said that he is not going to sell the property. You are right. Dependent on how you took ownership of the property, he can not sell without you agreeing to it.
When you bought the property, was there a downpayment and who made that? Were you both living in the property? Who made the mortgage payments? Is there equity in the property? (Property is worth more than the debbt).
There are a lot of questions to answer before you can determine what would be an equitable solution. Generally, if you have both contributed to living expenses until you moved out than he should pay you for your portion of the equity before you would take your name off the deed. You should not have to pay him to get your name off the deed.
In the future do not buy properties with people you are not married to unless you have written agreements on how to dislove the parternership.
obligations for property that I do not live in - Posted by Lisa Terry
Posted by Lisa Terry on April 02, 2007 at 08:18:15:
My boyfriend and I bought a house together - I no longer live there. He is the only one listed on the mortgage but we are both listed on the deed - my name appearing first.
He is paying the mortgage, taxes and maintaining the property.
He is not going to sell the property. He told me that if I no longer wanted to live there and wanted my name off the deed, I would have to pay him for half of the house and sign it over to him. Or, if I didn’t want to return to the property but wanted my name left on the deed, I would have to pay half the mortgage every month. The tax bill and water bill are in my name only.
This is a mess. I cannot afford a lawyer to settle this. What are his rights and what are my rights/options?
your situation is better than his. you are on title (a good thing) but not on the mortgage (another good thing).
you can just sit there and do nothing, because he has the problem. he cannot sell the property by himself(and neither can you). he must make mortgage payments. you might want to let the bank know where you are, just in case he gets into default. you may have to bail him out at some point.
if the two of you can come to an agreement, fine. [I won’t attempt to say whay might be fair, because I have no idea how you got where you are now. ]
if you can’t agree, threaten a partition action. this is a lawsuit where a judge determines the best solution (usually a judicially-supervised sale, and then an equitable split of the net proceeds.). if that does ot work, and there is some real money at stake, file the partition action. this should get his attention.
Is he living there now? How much is the monthly mortgage payment? Are taxes escrowed? How much cash did you two have to put down to purchase? Did you put-up any cash? Owners can seek contribution from other owners for payment of mortgage and taxes however he would need to bring a lawsuit. And if he’s living there the amount will be reduced by whatever value is assigned to represent fmv rent for the area/home.
Post more information and we can help sort this out.