Can a home’s co-owner force the sale?

On Behalf of | Feb 6, 2022 | Real Estate Disputes

When you were in college, you decided that you wanted to buy your own home so that you could stop paying rent. You weren’t married and you couldn’t afford it on your own, so you and one of your friends – a roommate at the time – decided to become co-owners.

It went well for the rest of college, and you were happy to be a homeowner. But now both of you are working, and your co-owner wants to sell the house. They’re planning to move for a new job, and they want to get their money out of this investment.

You, on the other hand, want to stay in the home. You don’t want to sell it and you are not able to cooperate with the co-owner. Are they going to be able to force you to sell?

A sale can be ordered by the court

It is true that a court can tell you that you have to sell the property. This is known as a partition lawsuit. Essentially, the court just requires you to sell the house and split up the money because it’s the only way that you can fairly divide that asset.

That said, the court would rather that the two of you figure out how to handle this on your own. A partition lawsuit is probably going to be viewed as something of a last resort. But it is possible, so you need to keep this in mind when determining what you want to do. You also need to make sure that you understand all of your legal options if this does wind up as a legal dispute between you and the other owner.

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