Just got off the phone with a friend, who is completely lost about what to do. The lawyer left for the day so there's no one else to consult, so I thought I would help out by asking the Somersoft brain trust as things are going to accelerate (in a bad way) over the weekend and with no legal counsel to reach out to things are getting scary.
They jointly own a property. Today the partner took off with both passports and all sorts of other identifying information. There's reason to believe (both from what has happened today and from things that have happened in the past) that the partner may attempt to sell it.
Is this possible if both people are on the title, and there's no power of attorney in place?
Secondly my friend asked the lawyer if a caveat could be put on the property, and he said not until a divorce has been officially filed. This didn't sound right, is it true?
Given a standard joint ownership scenario, what are the worst case scenarios one could imagine? Is my friend relatively protected by the standard laws? I mean surely the partner could not get away with any funny business unless there was forgery involved? There are no complex trusts or anything like that involved. Just a regular run of the mill house and ownership arrangement between husband and wife. I'm sure this is simple and rock solid?
They jointly own a property. Today the partner took off with both passports and all sorts of other identifying information. There's reason to believe (both from what has happened today and from things that have happened in the past) that the partner may attempt to sell it.
Is this possible if both people are on the title, and there's no power of attorney in place?
Secondly my friend asked the lawyer if a caveat could be put on the property, and he said not until a divorce has been officially filed. This didn't sound right, is it true?
Given a standard joint ownership scenario, what are the worst case scenarios one could imagine? Is my friend relatively protected by the standard laws? I mean surely the partner could not get away with any funny business unless there was forgery involved? There are no complex trusts or anything like that involved. Just a regular run of the mill house and ownership arrangement between husband and wife. I'm sure this is simple and rock solid?