Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I'm going through a breakup, problem is that we bought a property together. Technically everythng was done under my girlfriends name because she had the better credit and proof of income. I was supposed to be added on deed once deal closed, but we never did, I didn't worry about because we were supposed to be married. I gave her half of the down payment in cash. Our agreement was we would go 50/50 on payments, while I also paid to remodel our whole home. 2 1/2 years later, we were having personal problems and I decided to move out because she has a 10 yr old son (whom I raised for 5 years) from a previous relationship, but with the condition that we add my mom on title because she would be the reasonable mediator throughout our separation, she agreed, and we made my mom the sole property owner. Even though we were still trying to work things out, I moved into my own apartment, I continued to help her make payments on the property. We then found out she was pregnant, so we were really trying to make it work, but when she decided to have an abortion and went through with it i knew we could never make it work. I told her I wanted to sell the property and move on. She asked for time, I didn't want to do that, so I gave her money to continue making payments on home, that way she could focus on moving out. After 3 months of going back and forth, I knew she wasn't going anywhere, so I had an attorney friend send her a letter asking her to sell property and get 50/50 of profit. I just received a letter yesterday (7 days after we served her) saying she is disputing title and wants to keep the house and profits to herself. What can I do @ this point? All payments were made under her name, I always gave her cash because ive been living off of savings for the past 5years and she would report me on her taxes. The only proof I have of giving her money is a check she made out to me in 2009 when we were initially having problems for 30k, she was trying to buy me out @ that time. (btw we never married)
2 Answers from Attorneys
You need to hire an attorney to help your sort our this mess.
I agree with Mr. White. You have a lot of problems. First off, you should be aware that the statute of fraud requires contracts involving interests in land to be in writing. If you don't have a writing, you are going to have all kinds of proof problems and objections to any oral agreement that you allege as to who was to own the property.
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