- Jurisdiction
- California
Two siblings co-own a piece of real property in San Bernardino County, CA.
The title is held as "joint tenants".
They agree to sell the property.
One sibling paid all expenses related to the property (taxes, assessments, insurance, utilities, etc) for 15 years, the other sibling refused to pay anything during that time.
Then the sibling who was paying wanted to sell, the other did not, but did volunteer to assume paying all the expenses, which subsequently encompassed the next 10 years.
Now both agree on selling, but the one recently paying the expenses demands 50% reimbursement of their expenses for the past 10 years through escrow as a condition of sale and has filed a Partition action claiming it was previously agreed.
They have offered to reimburse 50% of the first sibling's expenses contingent on tangible proof of expenditures (of course this covers 10 to 25 years ago).
No prior discussion, let alone verbal or signed written agreement, had taken place previously as to the 50/50 sharing of any expenses by either party related to the property.
Does the Statue of Frauds apply requiring a written and duly signed agreement since the time frame is greater than 1 year? Involves land contribution dispute for joint tenancy?
Is there legal basis for time value of money adjustment (i.e. annual adjustment of costs based on published Federal inflation index) since expenditures were mutually exclusive over decade plus time frames?
The title is held as "joint tenants".
They agree to sell the property.
One sibling paid all expenses related to the property (taxes, assessments, insurance, utilities, etc) for 15 years, the other sibling refused to pay anything during that time.
Then the sibling who was paying wanted to sell, the other did not, but did volunteer to assume paying all the expenses, which subsequently encompassed the next 10 years.
Now both agree on selling, but the one recently paying the expenses demands 50% reimbursement of their expenses for the past 10 years through escrow as a condition of sale and has filed a Partition action claiming it was previously agreed.
They have offered to reimburse 50% of the first sibling's expenses contingent on tangible proof of expenditures (of course this covers 10 to 25 years ago).
No prior discussion, let alone verbal or signed written agreement, had taken place previously as to the 50/50 sharing of any expenses by either party related to the property.
Does the Statue of Frauds apply requiring a written and duly signed agreement since the time frame is greater than 1 year? Involves land contribution dispute for joint tenancy?
Is there legal basis for time value of money adjustment (i.e. annual adjustment of costs based on published Federal inflation index) since expenditures were mutually exclusive over decade plus time frames?
