Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

In general, there is a two year statute of limitations on verbal contracts, with the time startling the day after the last time the person promised to do the act. So you have to get him to promise to pay you. Perhaps tell him that you deducted it as a unpaid debt on your taxes but the IRS di dnot believe you. Get him to admit he had promised to pay you [try to get it in writing] and try to get him to again promise you. Since you had a contract with him that he breached, assuming the house has some equity in it, tell him you will file a withdrawal of the quit claim and he will realize [do not tell him or it might sound like balckmail] he will have problems getting a loan or selling the house. Since he gave you nothing, you should seek return of all the money you spent on the house.

I have a different view of the situation. A contract for the sale of an interest in real property must be in writing. This is referred to as the "statute of frauds," originally so called because it was enacted to prevent frauds, but nowadays in practice it seems to have an opposite effect in allowing frauds, as here. You should have asked for and gotten a promissory note signed by the ex-boyfriend, and preferably a deed of trust as a security device. Lacking a signed writing of some kind, your possibel legal action was and is "dead on arrival" and there never was a time frame where you could have sued for the $10,000. Well, almost -- see below.

Your quitclaim deed to him is valid between you even if it was not notarized or recorded, and there is nothing you can file that will withdraw the quitclaim. Deeds do their work of transferring title the instant they are delivered by the grantor to the grantee, and giving the deed back, or tearing it up, or burning it, does not un-do the transfer, even if the parties so intend.

If you had a note and deed of trust, I believe there would be no statute of limitations on your ability to foreclose by trustee sale. Suits on oral contracts must be brought within two years of breach, but the defense of the statute of frauds would have prevented recovery even if you had sued back in 2005 or 2006. The time limit for suits on written contracts (i.e., a promissory note with no deed of trust) is four years from date of breach, e.g., the date on which the note is past due if not paid.

Your best bet here would be a suit for fraud, if you can allege and prove that he secretly never intended to pay you in the first place, even though he said he would. It is also possible that there may be a way around the statute of frauds; for example, maybe some e-mails in which you discuss the $10,000, constituting a "written memorandum" of the deal. Such writings are sometimes an adequate substitute for a written contract. Even so, the limitations period might have expired in 2008 unless there is a somewhat later (say, not less recent than four years ago) acknowledgment of the debt or a renewed promise to pay.

Sorry you have waited too long and also did not get it in writing as you are required to do under California law. Both of these things would provide and absolute defense to any lawsuit you would bring. Hope you got yourself off the note on the property otherwise your credit will get penalized if the house gets foreclosed on.