I Co-Own my Home with a friend - How do I get Out??

[deletedusername]

Thanks in Advance for your help!!!

I live in a house that I own together with a friend. We bought it together but didn't really discuss what we'd do when we decide to sell. No legal agreements were created. So now that I'm engaged and need to get out from this co-ownership, what are my options to force him to either sell his half over to me or for us to put it on the market and sell it outright. Of course the value is now slightly under water as far as what we still owe on it. My father suggested a buy/sell agreement. He said with a buy/sell, I could present him with an offer to either buy it for the offer price or sell it to me for the same offer prioe. Granted, it's kinda backwards, since for me to take over full ownership of the home, I'd want him to pay me to leave. That's kinda the annoying part...
Thoughts?

 

[jharris352]

My suggestion is to get your agreements done BEFORE buying the house. Since that has not been done we have to deal with what you have.

The bad news is that you can not force him to do anything with his part of the house. You can present him with a buy/sell agreement and he can either accept it, or tell you to go fly a kite.

I don't mean to be flippant, we all make mistakes, but I am fond of saying on this board: Do not enter into long term purchases while in short term relationships. If you do you have to have contracts that agree on what to do in the event of dissolution of the friendship.

At this point you have to have his agreement to do anything with the property. So I would suggest you approach him with an attitude of cooperation and not demanding anything. Good luck, if he doesn't cooperate you are basically stuck. You can sell your half of the property if you can get someone to buy it, but that won't relieve you of the mortgage liability.

 

[deletedusername]

Wow, that hurts!

So a buy/sell agreement can't force him to do one or the other? Hmmm, well that puts a crimp in the plan.
Thanks, for the advice, I really appreciate it.

 

[jharris352]

A buy/sell agreement can be enforced, but he has to AGREE to it. After he agrees to it and signs it, he has to abide by it. But he does not have to agree to it.