Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: What is ''fair'' in regards to our property?

I guess you have already figured out that a written agreement would have been better. I would urge you to think hard about what you understood your verbal agreement to be and write it down. Add any remarks that you remember that he said to jog his memory. Show him what you come up with and ask him whether this is what he remembers. It sounds as if the intent was that his downpayment was to be balanced by what he owed you for working on his previous house. The morgage payments were balance by you paying other expenses. That would mean the profit is split 50/50. Alternately, he may expect some reimbursement of his down payment before the split or some reimbursement for paying more than his fair share of the expenses from your share of the profits. I urge you to stay calm and be willing to compromise. Litigating this will be expensive and you may not get any more money while you could end up with less.