Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Unless your former girlfriend is willing to cooperate in refinancing or selling the property, the only option for you to pursue is an action for partition. An action for partition is a lawsuit in which you ask the court to orde the house sold and the proceeds of the sell, less the expenses of sale, are divided between the co-owners.

This area of law can be very complicated, particularly in a situation where the parties have lived together for a long period of time and may have acquired rights to other property belonging to the other, and where there may be issues relating to California community property or quasi-community law and parentage are present. You should speak with an experienced family law attorney who has experience in real estate to determine whether you need to seek relief in a partition action or some kind of family law court action.

In addition to (1) the partition action option mentioned by Mr. Hoffman, which would ultimately be effective but could get expensive, you could consider (2) asking a court to reinstate your right as a co-owner to equal shared possession of the property; (3) selling her your interest; or (4) allowing things to take their course, likely meaning a foreclosure. Assisting you in deciding what to do would be helped considerably by knowing (a) whether the two of you have any equity in the property; (b) how the down-payment was split between you at the time of original purchase; (c) how title is held; and (d) your respective credit ratings. With regard to option #2, look up and study Civil Code section 843 on "concurrent ownership, ouster, procedure and damages." You may want to talk with a local real estate lawyer and also get a local real estate broker's opinion as to value, and assuming you are "on the loan," have a consultation with the lender as to whether the loan is current, options the lender can offer you, and so forth.

Unless you have what is known as a "Marvin" contract, you are going to have to probably do a partition. But you are going to have issues with the child, and will probably need a family law attorney at some point as well.