Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

No there is no 6 month abandonment. You will need to file a partition lawsuit. If there is any equity in the home, you may have to buy him out.

You need to do a partition action. If you need help feel free to call my office 818 345 0123

With some very minor exceptions (e.g., easements) real estate ownership interests are not lost by abandonment. There are two legal principles that will probably govern what happens here, although certainly others may crop up.

The first is that, as Mr. Selik mentions, a co-owner of property that has become unhappy with the situation can force a sale of the property by filing and prosecuting a so-called "partition action" against the other owner(s). Originally, centuries ago, courts partitioned co-owned property by ordering an actual subdivision of the property between the quarreling owners. However, this is seldom practical these days, with most co-owned property being developed urban buildings and subject to zoning and subdivision laws. So, courts almost always carry out partitions by ordering the property to be sold and the net proceeds (after all the liens and expenses of suit and of sale are paid) divided in some fair manner between the former owners.

A large majority of partition suits are settled out of court before final court action. Often this is because the defendant owner sees the handwriting on the wall and figures out that it's going to be cheaper, quicker and a lot less hassle to make a deal rather than to litigate. Sometimes, settlements of partition suits involve a negotiated buy-out of one owner by the other. Sometimes the parties agree to list and sell the property before they are ordered to by the court. Some cases move from the courts to private arbitration. However, taking a partition all the way through the court system can be pretty expensive and time-consuming.

The other legal concept you need to be aware of, going into this, is that when two people pay different percentages of the down-payment money for a property than is reflected in the way ownership is shown on recorded title (down at the courthouse), it is sometimes possible to have the recorded percentages of ownership adjusted by court action to reflect what each co-owner actually paid in terms of down-payment cash. For example, if John and Joe buy a house with $100,000 down, and John put up $83,000 cash but their title shows them as equal co-owners (for whatever reason), John can sue Joe to get title corrected to reflect the ownership as John 83%, Joe 17% instead of 50-50. This principle goes by the name "purchase-money resulting trust."

An overriding consideration here is how much equity is in the house. Being a half-owner in a house that won't sell for enough to pay the mortgage and taxes and selling commissions isn't much of a prize. Maybe the first step is to get an opinion on the economics from a real-estate professional, then contact a lawyer with significant real-estate experience.