Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Legal rights of mortgage co-borrower (name not on deed)

I gifted monies to my daughter to purchase a condo. She was required to have a co-signer on the mortgage. Her fiancee assumed the responsibility. They lived there for 3 1/2 yrs. with a verbal agreement that he would pay the mortgage and she would pay the condo fee because she was either making less money or in grad school and he was making more money. The Deed is in her name only and there was never any conversation that he was an intended owner. Their engagement has since been broken by my daughter and he is insisting that he is entitled to half of the equity in the condo. What is he enntitled to?


Asked on 8/23/00, 12:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Legal rights of mortgage co-borrower (name not on deed)

As you suspect, he's probably entitled to nothing on a technical "legal" basis. But there's another aspect of law, called "equity", in which fairness is the overriding concern, and judges can be persuaded to make up for just such a situation as this. Gifts in contemplation of marriage fall into such a category (hence, for example, engagement rings have to be returned).

Furthermore, as a co-signor on the loan, he can make some trouble for your daughter.

I think you should talk these things over with an attorney and eventually offer him some cash as a settlement to avoid troubles. Let the attorney handle all the negotiations. Some attorneys will start by offering nothing, so to speak, and waiting to see whether he'll hire an attorney and what steps he'll take. Others will try to get it settled right away but will negotiate to a reasonable amount.

Considering he paid 3.5 years mortgage payments, whatever the reason, asking for only half of the equity doesn't sound outrageous to me. What equity does he mean? The amount by which the loan was reduced? That will be SMALL! Or is he looking at sky-high appreciation of the condo and he wants back a piece of that $20,000 or $50,000 increase in valuation? That's a bit of a harder case for him to make, but entirely possible, and he could even ask for all instead of just half, couldn't he?

Please, again, talk to an attorney and let him speak with the gentleman (or ex-gentleman!) too if the attorney wishes to.

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Answered on 9/30/00, 2:29 pm


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