Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Unfortunately, one joint owner can do little or nothing regarding sale or refinancing of real estate without the permission of the other owners and their notarized signature on many closing documents. As a practical matter, you will therefore need to pay him to do this, and the logical amount to pay is the value of his share after all mortgages and liens are subtracted (i.e., his "equity," if any). If you are "upside down" on the value of the home compared to the mortgage (like most Americans these days}, his equity interest is zero or even a negative number. Then you would be doing him a favor by saving him from a debt and he, theoretically, should pay you. However, all of this works better in theory than in practice; the cheapest way to deal with him is to offer him some incentive to sign off. I would recommend that you retain a lawyer, who may be better able to persuade him than you. If all else fails, a lawsuit for partition allows a court to order a sale to the highest bidder, which may be you, with any net proceeds if any being divided according to percentage of ownership. My comments here are not legal advice, nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us. However, you are welcome to contact my office to discuss retaining me or to set up a free initial consultation at my office in Racine. I also can sometimes arrange to travel outside of Racine for initial consultations if absolutely necessary.