Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Can I force my brother to sell our house?

The "simple" way is for your brother come to an agreement with you, and you say he will not. You also say that you don't want to go to court or pay attorneys, yet that is the only way to "force" him to cooperate; I think you already know that, which is why you are asking an attorney what to do. You could sell your percentage without his cooperation, but who would pay top dollar for a 40% interest in common with someone who is uncooperative?

Re: Can I force my brother to sell our house?

Ms Deming is correct. If he will not cooperate, the usual method is by a lawsuit known as partition by sale. It pretty much forces a sale of the property, and then either you both must sell, or he must buy out your portion if he wants to keep the house.

Hard to find someone to buy only a portion of real property.

Very truly yours,

Re: Can I force my brother to sell our house?

The answer is yes, no, and maybe.

You have the right, even as a 40% owner, to possession of the entire house, and so does the 60% owner. Co-ownership makes the co-owners involuntary roommates of sorts.

Also, each co-owner has an absolute right, subject only to a couple of defenses, to force a sale (or split) of the property through a specialized kind of lawsuit called "partition."

Partition suits as a practical matter require use of a lawyer, and if the other owner resists and the case has to go through the entire litigation process, it can become expensive and take a long time.

However, in the course of handling a number of partition cases, I have found that, once the litigation is initiated, the once-unwilling owner becomes much more willing to negotiate an out-of-court solution.

Sometimes the solution is a buy-out; other times, the parties agree on a sale, in which case, if there is an on-going dispute over how much money each is entitled to (the net proceeds in a partition sale are divided the same as the ownership percentages AFTER adjustments for excess outlays made by one co-owner for mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, necessary repairs, etc. and for rents received by the owner in possession from third-party tenants), the owners may wish to agree to have that handled by post-sale arbitration.

So, I suggest (after all else fails) hiring a lawyer and preparing and filing a partition suit, but instructing your lawyer to try at each juncture to get a stipulation for sale and arbitration of any remaining money disputes.

Re: Can I force my brother to sell our house?

Mr. Whipple's post contains many words of wisdom. I would suggest ocntacting a local real estate attorney for further assistance.