Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You might need an actual in person attorney for this one. However, I am sure if you take it to court he will only be given half the equity minus the time he stopped paying. It needs to be established that your payments were not what is called a "gift".

Your question requires more information in order to give you a useful response. First, which of you contributed to the down-payment? If both of you put up 50%, there's a good possibility each of you is entitled to 50% of the equity, with adjustments for "excess" payments you or he made after the down-payment. Another question is whether he and only he is on the title, or whether there is some kind of co-ownership, i.e., joint tenancy or tenancy in common. Another question would be whether you made part of the payments, and so on. Please feel free to contact me directly; I specialize in sorting out situations like this.

If you're tenants in common, you most likely have a 50 50 ownership of the property. Both of you are entitled to share the equity in the property, but if a tenant in common is paying down an encumbrance like an existing loan secured by a deed of trust on the property, then the tenant in common who makes those payments is entitled to reimbursement for those payments and has a lien on the other tenants in common interest.