Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

She would need to file an action for Partition. This would force him to either buy her out (even if that's just by paying off her half of the loan by refinancing) or the house would be sold by the court and the mortgage paid off.

She has a two part problem. She wants to get off the title, which she could do by quit claiming the title to him, but that will not result in the bank dropping her from the mortgage. The lender wants as many people responsible for the mortgage as possible, so it is unlikely they would drop her from the mortgage. The only way to get off the mortgage is to pay the lender a large sum of money [if you can get their attention] or pay off the old mortgage. That is why, I assume, Mr. McCormick says she has to file a Partition action.

Bringing a lawsuit for partition is the traditional remedy for an unhappy co-owner of property to force an end to the co-ownership. The name "partition" comes from the former traditional practice where the property would be split in half by the court. In modern times, with zoning and subdivision laws and small urban parcels, this usually doesn't work well, so the current practice is that the court usually just orders the property sold and the net proceeds divided. Alas, in even more recent times, so many properties have little or no net equity, and there is nothing left to divide at the closure of the partitiion action, because the loans, legal costs and selling commission have reduced the net proceeds to nothing, or less.

On the other hand, merely by bringing a partition suit, your daughter would be showing the gent in question her firm resolve to wind up the co-ownership deal. He would be forced either to defend the suit, to cooperate, or to settle out of court.

A major reason why he promises but doesn't perform is doubtless that he is unable to refinance the loan under current property-market conditions and current lending standards. He also may not be particularly motivated to incur the costs, additional debt load, etc.

I think it would be worth while to present the overall case, including the debt and market value facts, to an attorney with recent experience doing partitions under adverse market conditions including negative equity situations. Just filing and serving the suit might propel the young man to the bargaining table.