Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

My mother and I are joint tenants in a house in California. She recently transferred her intrest to a a living trust. She plans on leaving her part to my sister. My mother gave the down payment to the property but I am the only one with income so I pay the mortgage. I do not agree with her wishes to leave the property to my sister. Can I force to buy my mother out? I don't want to lose this house I've invested 11 years into. Our original agreement was that it would be mine when she passed but now she has changed her mind.


Asked on 11/22/15, 9:41 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You can force a sale of the house by filing a partition action in Superior Court, but you can't be entirely certain the sale will be a buy-out by you of your mother. A partition action technically involves having the sheriff sell the property at auction the same as a foreclosure, and then the court deciding how to divide the proceeds, starting with paying off the mortgage and then adjudicating any claims that one owner contributed more than another to the value of the property. As you may imagine, a sheriff's sale never brings as good a price as a properly managed sale by a real estate agency. So a partition actions rarely go forward very long after being filed. Pretty much invariably the owners settle the case by one of two methods: 1. list the property for sale and then either negotiate distribution of the proceeds, or let the court decide any disputes; or 2. negotiate a buy-out of one owner by the other.

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Answered on 11/23/15, 10:10 am


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