Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Louisiana

Re: partner leaving state joint purchase of home louisiana

It sounds like you have a bit of a sour situation on your hands, and you want to be very careful about how you proceed. In my experience, these types of circumstances have turned into nasty and expensive court battles. You want to avoid this at all costs. A long legal dispute could wind up costing you more than the property!

With that said, it sounds like you and your partner are in a formal "Partnership." Partnerships are formed in Louisiana without any written instrument, and they make you and your partner equally responsible for the profits and losses of your business venture (unless you specified otherwise).

Unlike an LLC or Inc. or other business entity, your personal assets are not protected from liability in case a partnership goes belly-up. As such, you have a lot on the line here.

Unfortunately, if one partner simply leaves the other hanging, there is little the other can do to prevent it.

After it occurs, of course, the partners can file lawsuits against one another for any damages caused, but there is now way to prevent one person from not performing an obligation.

In the case of "house flipping," I have seen a few things happen.

First, if you were involved with the construction of the property, you may be able to file a lien on the property to protect your interests in it. Since the property is in your name, however, it would likely do little good.

Second, since you are co-owners of the property, you can actually petition the court to force a sale of the property. This will prevent you and your partner from owning the property together, but on the other hand, a judicial sale of your property will not likely be profitable.

All in all, when a partnership goes sour, the situation is exactly that: sour.

You have legal options to initiate a dispute against your partner, which may have the effect of having him or her act in a certain way or compensation you for any damages caused...however, there is little else you can do to make your partner behave as you would like.

I would be happy to have my office speak to you further about your situation.

Good luck.