Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

For reasons of privacy, etc., you should not reveal you name. Normally that will result in the question being dropped from this site.

You do not state whether the property is owned in partnership or how else. Wjhy does the other person not want to pay the expenses? If they are willing to pay some of them, such as the taxes, get them to pay those. You probably have joint and several liability as to the expenses, which means either one of you is responsible for up to the full amount of the expenses with the right to sue the other for reimbursement on a pro rata basis. If a judgment in the suit would not be imposed on the property but on each of you as individuals, then you may want to stop representing him in the suit and let the plaintiff take a default against him.

The only practical solution, but which would cost $10,000-15,000 is to file for partition of the propety and ask the court to order the sale of the property and reimburse you for his share of the expenses that you have paid and the split the reminder up 75-25% with his having to pay 75% of the partition costs. There is no guarantee the judge would award costs against him, but you seem to have the best facts for a judge to do so.

Good luck. Threaten him first with the suit, which will cost him more since he is out of the country, and then sue if he will not act reasonably. He probably will argue that some of the money you paid is barred by not fililng lin time, but you have to argue that you were compelled to do so and that it was in the form of a "trust" to benefit both of you. A detailed letter from an attorney would be the first and chapest approach, and then the suit.

If you want to keep the property, just document the expenses, and you could get repaid upon sale, refinance, etc., before split of the profits. If you want to sell the property, you can file suit to do so over his objection, and get proper credit for your expanses. You could sue for simple recovery of the expenses, but that is an extreme step to take. Threat of any of these might compel him to deal properly with you and repay this share of he expenses. If serious about taking any of those actions, feel free to contact me for legal help.