My wife, I, my wife's sister and her husband bought a two-family several years ago with the thought that they would live in the upstairs apartment and we would live in the downstairs apartment but things are not working out as we had hoped, and I would like to get out of the deal but they would like to continue living there and do not want to sell. What can I do in this situation?

When you own property with another you can force your way out of the deal by bringing an action for partition. That is a request that the Court  divide the property between the two people and if that is not possible then to appoint a commissioner and have the property sold. However doing that is quite expensive because both parties must hire a lawyer and then, if the property is ordered to be sold,  a commissioner is appointed who hires a broker and all of those expenses come off the top. Moreover if your sister in law and her husband really want to stay  in the building they can ask the court to divide the property by making it a condominium and the unit you are living in could be transferred to you and your wife and the other unit could be transferred your sister-in-law and her husband. The thing that generally complicates matters is that there is probably a mortgage on the property and that would have to get paid off or rewritten so that it applied to the units created by the condominium master deed and not to the entire property. Given the fact that you could force that result, it may make more sense for you to have a chat with your in-laws and suggest to them that the building be made into a condominium with each unit owner having certain rights with respect to the basement, attic, parking, basement and the like. That would enable you to sell your unit and your in-laws could refinance their unit so that enough funds could be generated in order to pay off the existing mortgage. Given the very advantageous interest-rate environment we are now in they may be better off anyway refinancing their portion of the debt on the existing mortgage. Since that is the best deal they could wind up with if you brought litigation they may be more than willing to do that which would have the side benefit of maintaining peace among the family members.

 

If you have questions about this or any other legal matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.

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