Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

When you say you are buying - have you completed the sale and have the deed already? Or have you only submitted an offer to purchase? If the former. you already bought the house; if the latter, you only have an offer to buy the house and you may be able to walk away, minus your earnest money, but it depends on what the contract says and why you are refusing to consummate the sale.

In answer to your question, if the deed is in both of your names and you are not married, did you and your boyfriend execute any kind of an agreement regarding the division of your assets if things did not work out?

Assuming the answer is no, then both of you are entitled to the house. If one of you wants it, I would suggest that the person who wants it get the property financed in his/her name and have the other person quitclaim his/her share of the property to the person who wants it. Depending on how much is still owed and the value of the property, the person who wants it may have to be willing to offer to buy the share of equity in the property belonging to the other person.

If neither person can afford to buy out the other, then either person can bring what is called a partition action. In that action, basically the court will order the property to be sold to the highest bidder and the court will divide any equity in the home between the two of you. See a real estate lawyer for that.

Can you make him leave? It depends. You could accuse him of committing an act of violence and take out a protection from abuse order if abuse is found. In the order, you can ask for possession of the property.

There is real abuse and there are women (and men but more often women) who try to game the system by alleging false abuse to get a leg up on the distribution of property or the custody of children. Abuse is a serious problem and should never be tolerated. However, a finding of abuse can have significant consequences beyond merely evicting him from the home - he will lose his right to possess a firearm. If there is real abuse, then talk to a family law attorney about filing a protection from abuse petition and pursue it to get him out of the home. But don't falsify charges just because you can't get along. You two bought the house together; you ought to be able to peacably divide your property and figure out what is to be done with the house.