Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland

Re: force sale of a house

If you are unable to work out an agreement with her to buy out her interest in the property, the only way to sever the relationship (other than to sell the property) is to file an action for partition in court. In such a case, you would be asking the court to appoint a trustee to sell the property and to apportion the proceeds in a way that reflects the respective contributions of the parties to the property. As you can imagine, this will be an expensive process that will end up benefitting neither of you, especially when you figure the cost of litigation and the cost of selling the property, including the trustee's fee.

Hopefully you can make her a fair offer and a payment schedule that will be acceptable. If you are in a position to refinance, you can offer her immediate cash and the benefit of clearing the mortgage off her credit record.