Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: Divide Property

Your partner may have violated some serious federal laws. One can't just "leave out" a piece of real estate from their bankruptcy petition. In any event, depending on the type of bankruptcy that was filed and the amount of equity your partner had in her share of the property, the bankruptcy trustee may want to sell the property, which sounds like what you want to see happen. Consult an attorney to look carefully at the bankruptcy filing to ascertain your rights as a co-owner and co-debtor.

Re: Divide Property

First if she owns half the property as her primary residence she should have filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy, if she fails to do so, she could be compelled to do so or her bankruptcy will be dismissed.

Second, if you signed the note for the Mortgage then you are responsible for its payment. Assuming this is a single family residence, you can file a petition for partition and force the sale of the property. I am assuming you are both on the title to the property. Her bankruptcy however complicates matters. If you pay the mortgage and she does not you can recover the interest etc. subject to the approval of the court.

If you are not a signatory to the Mortgage Note you are not required to make payments but you will lose the house if she can't make a chapter 13 plan that works.

If you have more questions, please do not hesitate to call me.

Re: Divide Property

You've got multiple, complicated questions here, which are too involved for meaningful email analysis. An attorney should look over everything you've got relating to these issues and, probably, will need to do some research to give you the answers you appear to require.

Let me know if I can help.