Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You may have an excellent remedy in the form of a quiet-title action based on a little-known legal theory called "purchase-money resulting trust" which says that title truly belongs to the person who paid the purchase money (i.e., the down-payment and any loan-payment money that's applied to principal, rather than interest) and not the person(s) whose name(s) appear on record title down at the courthouse. Since the portion of mortgage payments that go to principal reduction (as opposed to interest) in the early years is usually very small, if you paid 20% down about five years ago, chances are you'd own maybe 95% of the house, not 50%. You could then couple your quiet-title action with a partition action, thus forcing a sale, and you could buy out his 5% interest and become the sole owner. All this is moderately hypothetical and depends upon looking at the actual past payments, current market value, etc. etc., but I do believe it's well worth looking into. By the way, just calling the cops probably won't be very effective; they can't decide ownership and possession questions, and probably are too busy investigating violent crimes. Please feel free to e-mail me some basic numbers such as amount and percentage of down-payment you made, how long ago, who has made the monthly payments and for how long, purchase price and current market value, etc., and I'll try to give you a more personalized guesstimate of how a lawsuit for quiet title and partition might work out. Also indicate approximate dates of marriage and divorce. [email protected]. Thanks.