Co owner of my house stopped making mortgage payments and refuses to sell to me

Your first step in this situation should be to try to workout a settlement with the co-owner of the house. If that doesn't work, your second step would be to have an attorney write her a letter asserting your rights. Only if that doesn't work, your third step would be to file a partition action that requests the court to order that the property be sold and that the proceeds be divided amongst the co-owners. In the partition action, one of the co-owners can purchase the property from the other co-owner. A partition action is a matter of right between co-owners and you do not have to have a reason or show the court anything in order to request partition. Since she has stopped making payments, you should also request an accounting so that the court can determine if any monies are owed between the co-owners. This accounting would be offset with the proceeds of the sale of the property.

Please don't try to do this yourself. Partition lawsuits are very rare. Therefore, even lawyers and judges can make mistakes and make them take longer. You have to navigate statutes, statewide court rules and local court rules. In the end, the court is going to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Because it is a court sale, many brokers and buyers won't touch it. As a result, you are unlikely to get as good a price as if you and your co-owner agreed to market and sell the house with a good broker. I have always been able to persuade the owners to sell or even get the resident owner to buy out the non-resident. If this message doesn't do it, maybe you can hire me to try to talk your co-owner into sellling. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack