Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Re: home ownership

I'm also a California lawyer. If the home is in Wisconsin, you'll need an answer from a lawyer licensed in Wisconsin.

However, if the house were in California, my answer would be somewhat different from the two already given.

In California, a recorded deed, or so-called "record title," is given considerable weight in determining who "owns" real property; it governs "legal" ownership. In addition, however, California recognizes the possibility that legal title as shown by the public record at the county recorder's office may not fairly and properly reflect who ought, in fairness, to be treated as the true owner. Hence, we also have, in addition to legal title, the concept of "equitable title" or "beneficial ownership."

When X and Y are on title, but only X paid the down payment, a court would (often, not always) rule that Y holds his share of title as an involuntary trustee for X, and must transfer his legal title to X upon X's demand. The involuntary trust is a legal fiction arising from the presumption that X didn't intend to make a gift to Y, and is called a purchase-money resulting trust ("PMRT"). If X can establish the necessary facts by clear and convincing evidence, a court will quiet title 100% in X; Y will be stripped of title and subject to eviction.

Your daughter's situation looks like a PMRT, unless she can show that there is a contract providing for a different result, or that the person who paid the money made a gift of the half interest.

The bottom line is that your daughter could not be kicked out without a successful lawsuit against her, because of the presumption of ownership arising from being on title (all co-owners of real estate are entitled to simultaneous possession of the entire property); BUT by proper legal action she could probably be removed from title and then removed from possession.

California's law on PMRTs is not unique; most other states have similar law, although not uniformly so in the details.

Re: home ownership

If she's on the deed, she doesn't have to move.

Re: home ownership

California is a race-notice jurisdiction. In this case, this means that because she is on the deed, she is a legal owner. It's generally what is recorded that matters. In some exceptional cases, this could be reversed in the case of fraud, but that would be a highly unusual set of circumstances. She can record a "lis pendens" (notice of pending litigation") on the property if the ex will cause problems while this gets sorted out.