Breaking a joint tenancy
May 9, 2013 5:40 PM   Subscribe

Yes, I know everyone will tell me to get a lawyer. Anyway, has anyone ever broken a joint tenancy on a piece of property?

A house has been left in joint tenancy to two siblings. What are the choices for the sibling who does not want to own his share of the house if the other sibling does not want to buy him out? Any one have experience with this? What did you did and what was the outcome?
posted by fifilaru to Law & Government (7 answers total)
 
Even the people who won't tell you to get a lawyer are going to tell you this will depend on where you are (and where the property is, if those locations are different).
posted by lollusc at 5:55 PM on May 9, 2013


This is like asking "I wanna sue someone, how do I do it without a lawyer?"

You probably can, but it's a "how do I make my car into a boat" question. Most people are going to tell you that buying a cheap boat is the answer.

And that's especially true when there's family, and lots of money involved. This could go very, very sideways and lawyers could get involved later who would rip through whatever "agreement" had existed beforehand.

I'm not a lawyer and I think this is a baaaad idea.
posted by emptythought at 6:08 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


IANYL and this is not legal advice, but the general rules for a joint tenancy in my state are:

Each joint tenant has an equal and undivided interest in the property. It means, basically, that both of them legally own the entire thing. The benefit to joint tenancy is "right of survivorship," which means that if one joint tenant dies, the whole interest passes to the surviving joint tenant without having to go through probate.

If both joint tenants agree to sell, the money from the sale must be equally divided.

If Joint Tenant A wants to sell but Joint Tenant B does not: Because both Joint Tenant A and Joint Tenant B legally own the whole property, Joint Tenant A does not need the approval of Joint Tenant B to transfer his interest to someone else. Joint Tenant A's sale of his interest dissolves the joint tenancy and the new owner + Joint Tenant B now have a tenancy in common.

Would the sibling B who doesn't want to buy out the other sibling A be willing to do a partial buyout? If so, they could convert the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common and partition the ownership so that B owned much more than A, but A still had an interest. BUT this area of the law is rife with legal twists that have serious tax consequences, so I IMPLORE you to consult an attorney.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 6:19 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: IAAL, IANYL, TINLA.

To give another example of how a lawyer is needed, in my state, each joint tenant has the right to sell, lease or bequeath their interest in the property. In my state, what sevensnowflakes describes is called tenancy by the entirety, which is only for married couples. I don't know if Siblings A and B have a joint tenancy or a tenancy in common, given your question's state facts.

If Sibling A doesn't want his 50% and Sibling B doesn't want to buy him out, Sibling A could quitclaim his portion to Sibling B. (assuming Sibling B doesn't want to but out because he doesn't want to spend the money)

Siblings A and B need a lawyer, but before that, they need to figure out what they want.
posted by Tanizaki at 6:32 PM on May 9, 2013


I can't tell you what to do, but I do know that my husband was left a piece of joint property, and he "sold" it to his brother for about $5,000 when he needed the money, and now it's worth about $1,000,000.

So I would hire a lawyer. If that answers your question.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:03 PM on May 9, 2013


Best answer: If the parties can't come to an agreement and one party wants to sale the property, he/she can ask the court to force a sale, called a partition sale. Normally, you can't force someone to be a property owner. The person that wants to own the property has two choices, buy the other party out or lose it entirely and get half the proceeds, or whatever percentage of ownership they have, when it's sold.
posted by shoesietart at 8:12 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


IAAL, IANYL.

After reading the prior answers, and strongly disagreeing with all but a few portions of them, I'm going to tell you what you don't want to hear: get a lawyer, in your state, who specializes in real estate.
posted by Mr. X at 10:38 AM on May 10, 2013


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