Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: Jointly owned real estate

How was the remaining owner planning to pay off the selling owner? Reply to me in e-mail.

You haven't said that the two owners are also signatories to the mortgage, but I'll assume that.

I assume that the tenants in common have no right of survivorship; this is not a joint tenancy.

Any modern mortgage is likely to have a due-on-sale acceleration clause. They have a right to be concerned if they used the income streams of two people to calculate how much could be afforded, right? The reality is that your equity may have gone up so much that they don't have realistically any concern; you should try asking them. However, once you ask they're alerted and may try to impose a fee or more likely get you to rewrite the mortgage with them so they get a better rate. Was the mortgage resold already or is it held by the original seller of the mortgage? An attorney would likely have a better chance of negotiating this than you would.

It's also possible that your co-tenant would be able to leave his/her name on the mortgage (with the right security interest!) and thereby allow the mortgage company to have two people to come after still (plus the primary lien on the entire parcel) so they'd have no legitimate reason to balk. Do you follow? (You should have a real estate attorney handle this for you.)