Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida
Hi. I am a co-borrower on a condo with my ex-boyfriend, we were supposed to get married. Shortly after purchasing the home I realized he had only used me for my credit score to be able to obtain the condo. We purchased the condo in Dec of 06' and he broke off our relationship in August 07'.
During our relationship I did contribute monetarily to the upkeep of the condo but unwisely I never kept records of those things. Really the only record I have is of a refrigerator I bought. I did 80% of the physical labor in renovations for the condo because renovations are my strong point. However, after the relationship was over I stopped contributing period.
In August of this year, it will have been 3 years of me calling, writing, emailing, even having some people mediate between the two of us about the condo. He agrees to nothing and takes action on nothing. Now he is married to a girl and they both continue to live in the condo. At first I asked him to help me remove my name from the deed and mortgage. He refused. But for most of the 3 years I have been asking him to buy me out. The many times I have reached out to him, he has only replied to me twice, one time I thought he was going to work with me and the other time he was telling me he refused to correspond with me via e-mail but didn't suggest an alternative way to keep track of our conversations to eachother.
For the 2 1/2 years I have been asking for a key to the house because he and another guy he had living at our condo are the only 2 people to have one. I assume now that his wife has one as well. He refuses to give me a key.
About 6 months ago I decided to go over to my home with some members of my family (because he has physically and sexually assaulted me before). I went over there with the intentions of changing out the locks and providing him with a key and me keeping one as well. I figured if he didn't let me in I would just call the cops. However, I didn't end up having to do that because when I arrived at my condo with my family, he was not home, I went around the back patio, where the glass door as almost always left unlocked when we were dating and sure enough it still was. I entered with my family, my brother changed the locks. We left and I called my ex to advise him of what I had just done, he became irate so I hung up and to cover my bases I sent him a text message that I could keep as a record stating the I'd changed the locks and left him a key under the front mat. He started to call me numerous times back to back, then he sent me numerous text messages back to back of which I ignored but kept for record purposes. Soon afterwards the cops arrived at my mothers house because I had to call them because my ex came over trying to harrass me. Never wanted to talk before and now that I've changed the locks he wants to come 15 miles to my house.
To make a long story short the cops came and asked him to leave our property and told him I had done nothing wrong, they advised me to file a restraining order.
My question is what is my best way to go with this situation? Can I sue for ouster? I feel that I can prove that I have been ousted because the text messages he sent me (23 long text messages all in total) after he was escorted off of my mother property range for about 3 hours and he says in his messages that he has changed the locks back and I will not get in to my house and treathens to kill me.
I have not taken serious legal action yet because honestly I don't have the money, I had ovarian cancer for the past 2 years and I am now in remission. But treatments have stumped me monetarily and I am trying to just get back on my feet now and find a job since I have been too sick to work for so long. I am pretty young, 25 to be exact so I know I have years ahead of me. But, I want to get married, maybe adopt a child or buy my own house. I don't want the stress of co-owning this condo with such a bad person.
When I do get the money though, preferably when I start working again because then I will be prepared to take legal action, I just want to know if I have any sort of case here? Can I sue him for ouster, can I sue him so I can be bought out. I know that I can prove that the house was bought based off my credit score, and that I was fraudently promised an outcome and it was the reason I purchased the house with him. Also his text messages show his hostility and aggressive nature as well how completely uncooperative he has been through these 3 years and it also obviously shows he has been keeping me from accessing the house.
Any thoughts you may have would be very helpful. Thankyou
2 Answers from Attorneys
Your remedy is an action in partition to sell. Retain counsel.
You need to speak with an attorney. You can force the sale of the property and keep your half. Please feel free to call me if I can be of assistance. Regards,