Real Estate time-share dispute

[frances_jones]

Please help!!

Bought a time-share real estate property as joint tenant with boyfriend. Boyfriend leaves me for someone else, refuses to pay his share of the mortgage payments and refuses to sell the time share. What is my legal recourse? Can I force him to sell? is it a real estate issue or a breach of contract issue. Is it both?

fj

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Hard to say without seeing what you bought and how it is structured. I'm assuming you never signed a contract with him but had an agreement -- verbal. What was the agreement with regard to the mortgage and how were payments handled?

What you are talking about is a suit for "specific performance" -- where you want to be awarded a specific piece of property -- and it is a very, very good question. It is possible that you might be able to use the mortgage agreement against him so as to "foreclose" against his ownership interest. Most important is your state law in dealing with such situations.

Regardless, you should be sending him letters, certified return receipt, that he is defaulting in his payments for the mortgage and ignoring demands for payment. If you signed the agreement jointly, you should remind him that it he has a joint obligation and that you will sue for damages and interest should you need to continue to make payments -- as you can be sued as well for the whole amount (I'm assuming.) You can make assumptions that he wants to abandon the property -- but you'll need to use the court system to fix the problem if he won't be amenable to an amicable solution.

As a rule, never ever do things jointly without a written agreement of how to deal with the property/investment should things not work out. As you can see, it creates an unbelievable mess. Frequently these problems appear with leases, boy/girlfriends and roomate issues.