Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: real estate owned my multiple family members

The answer is yes, a sale can probably be forced.

However, the unhappy co-owner can't force the other owners to buy her out, absent a specific contract requiring this. All she can do is force a sale into the general marketplace.

Who lives or doesn't live in the house has very little significance.

Neither does poverty or hardship.

The basic law is simply this: when two or more persons own property together, and it isn't their community property because of marriage, any of the co-owners has the right to force a sale of the property.

The process of forcing a sale starts with filing a special kind of lawsuit called a "partition" suit. The name comes from older times, when heirs to the family farm couldn't get along, and the courts "partitioned" or physically divided the farm into smaller farmettes, one to each heir.

In modern times, with developed or urban property and heavy zoning regulation of lot splits, it has become increasing necessary -- and common -- to resolve partition cases by a court-ordered sale, after which the net proceeds (after paying off loans and other liens as well as selling commissions and costs) are divided in some fair manner (determined by the court) and paid to the co-owners.

The result is that all the co-owners get some cash. The more equity in the property, the more cash there is to distribute. Anyone who is a co-owner will get (usually) a bundle of cash, so the problems of homelessness or whatever are not very real. The unwilling co-owners' biggest "problem" is likely to be a big capital gains tax liability -- and even that will not apply if they lived there two years of the last five, so as to qualify for the primary residence capital-gains exclusion.

There are a few limitations on the otherwise absolute right of an unhappy co-owner to force a partition on the other co-owners. These include waiver of the right, e.g. by entering into some special contractual relationship with respect to the property, such as a right of first refusal to buy the others out, a development contract, or an agreement in which the right to partition is expressly waived. This is unlikely in your situation.

Refinancing is not part of the deal. If there are disagreeing multiple owners, a refinancing isn't likely, and no law requires one.

Responsibility for repairs, taxes, etc. is a compex question, but when the court divides the proceeds of sale it will take into account the FAIR division of the available net proceeds, and that includes reimbursing any selling co-owner that got stuck with a disproportionate amount of necessary costs. The court will also adjust the funds for any net rents received by anyone but not shared with the other co-owners.

Re: real estate owned my multiple family members

Yes; a party who wishes to sell his or her interest can force a sale through a partition action. The fact that one of the owners has a child and will have financial hardship is irrelevant and does not affect the situation one way or another; no one else is resonsible for that child but its parents; why should the owner who wants to sell have to wait to receive their money because another owner decided to have a child? All parties are responsible for repairs and costs of sale, unless they can establish that any repairs were necessary because of damage or neglect of a particular party. Also, depending upon many factors, the party who remains in the house, may be held to be responsible for fair market rental value for their period of continued occupancy prior to any sale.