Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Removing someone from a grant deed?

The only way the third person can get the other two removesd would be to force sale of the property through the courts, in which that person would need to pay the other two for their share of the ownership.

Re: Removing someone from a grant deed?

The answer depends on the circumstances, like whether the other two owners have contributed to the property. You can force a sale through the court, called a "partition" action, which would result in a court sale and the proceeds being divided among the owners. This is an expensive process, and may not result in a good sales price, but the threat of this may result in some kind of settlement among the owners.

Re: Removing someone from a grant deed?

Yes, but court action would be required.

I assume you mean three persons are shown on the same deed as grantees. If they took title as joint tenants, each necessarily owns 1/3; if title was taken as tenants in common, ownership is probably 1/3 each unless shown otherwise.

Each of the three co-owners would have an equal right of possession of the entire house.

If the three names appear due to mistake, fraud or something of that ilk, an apparent owner's name could be removed by a suit to "reform" the deed. If, however, there was nothing of this sort but just three legal owners who can't agree among themselves, any one of the co-owners can file a partition lawsuit. The court will order the property sold and the net proceeds divided.

There is no reason why one of the three owners can't buy out the other two in the court-ordered partition sale. She would, of course, have to be the highest offeror.

In some circumstances, partition cannot be ordered because one or more of the co-owners has a defense, which might, for example, be plaintiff's prior waiver of her right to partition because of having granted the others a right of first refusal, or otherwise having relinqished the right of partition.