There are few ways to come to a solution everyone is satisfied with when you disagree with co-investor(s). The best option if they won’t come around is either buying their share, or asking that they buy yours.
If you’re fortunate enough to be the sole owner of a property, you make the decisions when to sell your house as is. However, if you’re only the co-owner it’s a little bit different. You can only sell if you get permission from the other co-owner(s).
If all the co-owners agree that you should sell a property, and when you should sell it, then there’s no problem. Unfortunately this doesn’t always happen. If you find yourself in this predicament, the best thing you can do is buy the other owner(s) out, or have them buy you out. If approached carefully, it can even be mutual and amicable.
Another option is to sell your ownership claim.
But what if all of these options don’t work? Your partner just isn’t listening, and is not open to accepting any changes. The last resort is going to court to force a re-sale.
If you want to sell your property, and the other co-owner(s) don’t. One solution is for you to buy out the other co-owner(s), After you have bought out the co-owner(s), it is wholly your property to do with as you wish.
If your co-owner is being a little difficult and he or she refuses, it isn’t necessarily the end of the conversation.
How does the situation work when there are multiple owners? This is common when you have siblings that may have inherited a property from their parents or close relatives. Let’s say you have two brothers Richard and Mike, and their sister Betsy. Mike and Betsy want to sell the house as is, but Richard won’t agree. He wants to hang on to his parents home.
In this situation, one way out for Richard is to buy out Mike and Betsy’s share of the property. However, Richard needs to have the finances to do that, and all three siblings need to agree on how much their property is worth.
In the case that they all disagree on what the house is worth, the next move would be a home appraisal to come up with an objective number. For the purpose of this theoretical, let’s say the appraiser assesses the house value to be $400,000.
With that appraisal, each sibling owns a $133,333 share in the house (assuming they own equal shares). To buy out Mike and Betsy’s share without negotiation, Richard would need to come up with $266,666.
However, it’s not always the case that a single appraisal will put all owners in agreement about how much one has to pay another to own the whole property. It could be that Richard decides to request another separate appraisal. If the newer appraisal is lower, the two parties could meet halfway between two values.
In the case that one party simply refuses, and a common ground can’t be made, then the disagreement can be brought to court.
If you are in a situation where you want to sell your share of a property with more than one co-owner, you’ll need to follow certain steps to remove your legal responsibility for the property. This involves ensuring the mortgage is refinanced to take your name from the title with a *quitclaim deed.
*A quit claim deed is also known as a non-warranty deed, “a quit claim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor currently has in their property if any. The grantor only “remises, releases, and quitclaims” his or her interest in the property to the grantee. There are no warranties or promises regarding the quality of the title”.
You may share tenants or have a tenants agreement that you share with your co-owners. Part of the agreement is each owner pays their share of the ongoing house costs. This includes repairs, mortgage payments, and utility bills.
How much you pay depends on what percentage you own of the property. You’ll continue to pay your share until a buyout agreement or some other agreement is in place so you can sell the house as is.
You may not own the entire property, but you may own a sizable portion of it. This is your share so it’s in your control. You may decide to sell your share of a property to someone else.
However, this is not something your co-owner(s) may be in favor of. After all, it’s likely that they won’t know them and may feel uncomfortable with this arrangement.
As well as it not being popular with a co-owner, it may be difficult to sell your share. Unless your property is in a desirable location or is a luxury penthouse, it’s likely going to be difficult to find someone who will be comfortable co-owning something with a stranger.
It’s hardly an enticing proposition. You may discover that you are not allowed to sell your share at all. Typically, it is up to co-owners if they choose to sell their share of a house, but if it is a marital home, “this right could be suspended”.
You can acquire a court order if you want to sell a co-owned property, providing you have a compelling reason to sell. This is known as a partition action. A piece of land of a property is much easier for a court to divide up between co-owners. But it becomes more complex when it comes to “dividing up houses”.
The court isn’t able to divide a house into equal halves. Instead, it can force owners to sell, even if it’s not what they want to do. The proceeds of the home sale is divided between owners depending on what percentage they own. But, when talking about the situation of dividing a property between a married couple, the laws differ.
A lot of the time, the property that you want to sell cannot be practically divided between co-owners. For example, if it was a beachfront cottage. The court may decide to give one owner the cottage, while the other owner gets the beach front. The problem is it’ll be difficult, if not impossible to find a buyer that wants to purchase the cottage without the beachfront.
Whether or not a house can be appropriately shared among multiple co-owners, a partition action may not be the best answer. In a partition action, the court has the final say on how a property is shared between the co-owners.
However, it can be very expensive and can take a long time to settle. In some cases it can take at least a couple of years to get a partition action through the court system. During that time, as one of co-owners you will need to continue to cover all the housing expenses like utility bills, and taxes.
It’s important to recognize that the property deed and the mortgage are two different legal matters with their own repercussions. If your name is on the property deed, you have the responsibilities that come with being a co-owner.
If you sell or transfer the ownership of a house, this will mean your name is removed from the deed. You may have no other choice but to go to court to force a sale. The proceeds of the house sale may go toward paying your mortgage off and you can walk away.
However, if you transfer ownership in another way, you’ll need to ensure that the remaining co-owners are willing and are able to refinance the loan without you. If they aren’t able to do that, this means you are stuck with paying for a house that you longer have ownership of.
Arguments and disagreements about selling can be quite common between co-owner(s) – where one wants to sell the house as is, and the other refuses to budge. Often, these disagreements can be faced with peaceful negotiation and compromise.
When your co-owner(s) refuses to sell a house as is, the best solution is to either buy their share, or request that they buy yours.