Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The expression "....put the house up for closure....." makes no sense. I assume the threat has something to do with foreclosure. Foreclosures happen when no one makes the mortgage payments for a few months. Who is making them? Whose names are listed on the mortgage (note and deed of trust, actually) as borrowers? What about the other two aunts? If the troublesome aunt hasn't made payments in years, I'd guess that it is doubtful anything she could do or not do at this point would cause a foreclosure.

If the home has been owned by the four (dad and three aunts) for 20 years, there is perhaps quite a lot of equity in it, i.e., the market value is probably well over the remaining balance on the mortgage. This assumes it has not been refinanced and that no one has taken out any second mortgages, which would seem unlikely. This means that the owner or owners have a significant stake in establishing and protecting their rights.

What your father should do is go back to the time the house was purchased and, forgetting the mortgage, take a look at who provided the purchase money. The "purchase money" is any deposit given to the seller, plus down-payment funds, but excludes the mortgage loan.

The person or persons who provided the purchase money may be able to assert ownership in proportion to their contributions. In other words, if your father put up 85% of the purchase money and each aunt put up 5%, he would be an 85% owner, or more accurately would be able to assert a right to 85% in court, without regard to what the title documents down at the County Recorder's office might say.

On the other hand, if the aunts provided the entire down payment, forget it. The theory that equitable ownersip follows the purchase money isn't going to help.

The name of the legal (actually, equitable) principle here is that a "purchase-money resulting trust" arises in favor of the person actually putting up the down payment, and that anyone who gets on title without a commensurate contribution to the purchase money holds that share of title as an nvoluntary trustee for the person whose money was used.

Purchase-money resulting trusts can be asserted by way of complaint to quiet title or as a cross-complaint to a partitiion or other suit over title. Please feel free to contact me off-site for further information.

Any title owner could file suit for "partition" of the property, meaning there would be a court supervised 'accounting' determining who owns what interests. Then the owners and claimants could be compelled to either buy out one another in some form, or refinance or sell the property and split the proceeds. As the son of one of the owners, you would have an interest and claim on the property as well. If serious about getting legal representation in this to protect your interests, feel free to contact me.