Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Real Estate Agreement

Your father is not precluded from asserting ownership, it's just that his case will be tough to prove. A huge stack of cancelled checks, showing he made the mortgage payments would help.

Re: Real Estate Agreement

from the facts given, your father may have rights to this home, even with only a verbal agreement in place, by virtue of partial performance which could show an agreement was actually in place, even without a writing. however, your father would need to provide evidence showing he was in fact making payments, etc..that would show his ownership interest now and/or in the past. if you would like further asistance in this matter, please email directly with more detailed information and how your father might like to proceed.

Re: Real Estate Agreement

I doubt that either proof of making mortgage payments or proof of partial performance would get you far in court. Making mortgage payments does not confer ownership. Your father would prevail only if it can be shown that the outcome would be grossly unfair to him without court intervention, and if the payments made were roughly equivalent to rent, he would be deemed a tenant.

The aunt-uncle divorce proceeding as well as the probate proceeding in the aunt's estate would have to be reviewed by an attorney assessing your chances of prevailing.

California has a law requiring contracts for the transfer of an interest in real property to be in writing. Unlike other "in writing" requirements derived from common law, this one is not so riddled with holes and exceptions that it is easily gotten around. You might succeed based upon fraud or "promissory estoppel." For a case where the latter was invoked as a ground for enforcing an oral real-property agreement within a family, see Monarco v. LoGreco, available on line via various search engines. The successful plaintiff in this case was able to show that unless the oral agreement were enforced, he would suffer the loss of a lifetime of farm work on the family farm that had been promised to him by his parents. Few other oral agreement cases have such compelling facts.

If after reviewing the Monarco case you think your father has been badly victimized, you might want to find a local real-property specialist who could review the facts and advise you on your prospects, but from here it looks as though making mortgage payments would be treated as a form of rent and making the down payment would govern title, especially since the uncle was probably the borrower and ultimately liable for the mortgage payments.