Me and my partner had been together for approx 10yrs and in that time webought a house in joint names. Sadly the relationship broke down because my partner decided to stray and it was his decision to leave me.He hasn't been anywhere near for 3yrs at least and suddenly decides he wants to try forcing me to sell the house.Is there anything I can do to stop him doing this because if this happens I will not be able to financially buy another property with the profits from the house. Can anybody please advise me as to what I can do.
Thanks.. Kate

You have two choices... pay them half its current value... or they force a partition sale.

They are part owners and have that right as such. Sorry, but there are no other choices.

How is the mortgage held? I assume he has not been paying the mortgage these past three years, right? But is his name on it? If so, first thing to do is refinance with a mortgage issued in your name only. Then you buy out your ex-partner, by paying him the fair market value of his half of his original down payment plus any capital improvement he may have paid. If your credit is good you may be able to refinance with enough of a loan to pay off your ex with excess cash from the mortgage, or perhaps do this with a separate home equity loan. But if your credit isn't good enough to get a mortgage in your name only then you'll have to sell.

Well... you bought the house together in agreement. Now, to sell it, both need to be in agreement as well. Unless there is good reason, he may not be able to force the sale. But this depends on your jurisdiction and what laws pertain to your situation. You probably should go talk with an attorney familiar with your local, county and state laws regarding this matter. If money is a problem, there are programs available to get you free or discounted legal help.

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Originally Posted by oneexception

Well...you bought the house together in agreement. Now, to sell it, both need to be in agreement as well. Unless there is good reason, he may not be able to force the sale. But this depends on your jurisdiction and what laws pertain to your situation. You probably should go talk with an attorney familiar with your local, county and state laws regarding this matter. If money is a problem, there are programs available to get you free or discounted legal help.

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Partition sales don't work that way... when ANY partner wants out... the remaining partners have to buy them out of they can petition for a partition sale... and the court will do it. There wouldn't be a partition sale if there was an agreement.

Even a minority owner can do that... and it's a good reason to think long and hard on any business araingement that has multiple partners. And a home is no different.

Smoothly is right... we've been fighting my husband's ex for 5 years now trying to keep our home. We're in almost a similar situation.

I'll give you the background so others do not make the same tragic mistakes:
In the 1980's he was a passenger and his ex was driving-she was cited for negligent driving and he came out of accident paralyzed. He sued the insurance for minimum & she married him after the money was coming in-and he bought 2 properties-land in Ca. & a jumbo three flat. (which he put her name on both). He needed something that would sustain him for the rest of his life. She fooled around on him and took year long vacations from the marriage, coerced him to sign off on divorce, telling him they don't need to use lawyers-he said he would pay off her credit card debts off & sign his name off alpine w/ agreement that she signs off the chicago property when he refinances. Later, she came back taking both jeep and his 61'cadillac too (later we obtained transcripts & discovered she perpetrated fraud in court deliberately omitting all other assetts she received and said there was an "oral agreement" about how the three flat property would be ran)She alluded they only had the three flat property (shame on the Judge for allowing that).

Later, in 2005, he asked her to sign off after he ran the place & paid out of pocket for everything since 1994' without any contributions from her to present date. She refused and screamed that she wants half a million, she wants money for a house (she blew all the past asetts & money he already gave her including abandoning the cars on the highway leaving the titles in my husband's name leaving him with a suspended license from over $3000 in tickets. She then threatens him with court and a lawsuit. My husband is hospitalized from paralysis injury she caused & SHE attempts to "evict" us from the home HE paid for. The judge denied her attempt.

We retain a lawyer (bad lawyer in the end) who would not move to sever the partnership when we asked to remove her from title*In property law it is possible to remove a partner if they have not contributed and you have not been in contact for X amount of years*different in each state. When the "partner puts in even $1 into the property, their rights are reinstated. Read Business Law (real estate partnerships section) books for more info on this.It helps.

Meanwhile, she reinstated her rights quickly. She sabotaged my husband's business of 30yrs by scaring out all the tenants, threatening eviction, preventing/blocking us from renting out units, etc.- upon her refusal to pay half the gas at that time saying it's all "his bills", gas was cut off because we had no rents coming in to pay the bills, which later resulted in pipes freezing & busting in the winter. we fell into foreclosure. we offered another buy out which was more than half the market value minus the debts/mortgage. She refused & said put it on the market. We got a few offers for 1.1 million, she refused them and harassed the potential buyers.

The real estate market plummeted, we offered another buy out.She refused again. Our lawyer filed partition to put the pressure on her. We are still in foreclosure and the judge ordered to list it with a third realtor she picked. We have bid for 500K and that is considered lucky in today's market. She is refusing to cooperate still, refusing to reimburse my husband for everything she owes & took. This whole time she's refused any responsibility or obligations but wants to reap all the benefits.


at this point, the buy outs we've been offering would be more than what she is going to get now...she still won't listen. we don't know what will happen, but her greed & stupidity cost us a lot of money. Sometimes these exes don't even care about the money as much as just hurting you. Try the buy out, but if that doesn't work the courts will force a sale-you at least can have say in WHO buys it. if you really want the place perhaps you can have a ghost buyer to purchase-that idea relies heavily on someone, friend, etc. who's trustworthy with good credit or the cash to help. The risk is the courts forcing the sale to a higher bidder, but your party can always bid a dollar more if they have the means to.
It's hard for us to let go sometimes, but if nothing else try to get the biggest bid you can on your place and just find a new place to make "home". There's a light at the end of the tunnel, Good Luck
-This is all I know based on my situation. I'm open to advise if there is something we can still do that we may have not tried but we only have a month left