If I purchased a condo with my now ex-fiancee and now she wants to sell the property but I don’t, what should I do?
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If I purchased a condo with my now ex-fiancee and now she wants to sell the property but I don’t, what should I do?
I pay the mortgage and live there. She lives elsewhere.
Asked on August 29, 2011 California
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
The fact is that when joint owners of property cannot agree as to ownership matters, the law provides a legal remedy called "partition". This allows for the division of property among co-owners; any co-owner can file for such an action. Accordingly, if a property can be physically divided the court will so instruct; if division would be impracticable (e.g. in the instance of a single family dwelling) a court would order a "sale in lieu of partition"; pursuant to this an equitable distribution of the proceeds would be paid to the joint owners. Before doing so however, the court would permit one co-owner to purchase the interest of the remaining co-owner at fair market value.
The fact is that, you will either have to buy her out or sell.Iif you can't afford to buy her out, then you might as well sell now before incurring attorney's fees and court costs.
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