Joint Tenants - Can I force a sale???

Hi everyone,

Hoping I can get some help on here with my situation:

Bought my first IP in 2009 with my then partner as joint tenants. Property has been a dud. It would actually sell for about $30K less than the loan we have on it (property is in QLD). The other major factor is we borrowed 100% and used my parents as guarantor.

We have since split (4 years ago), everything remains amicable, but I really want to get my parents off so I'm willing to cut losses. But my ex is not. He is being very stubborn and does not want to sell at a loss. I can understand this but I'm just so over it, I want to invest my money elsewhere, and I just want to cut all ties. I've asked him to take it over but he is not willing to come up with a new deposit with the additional shortfall.

I don't want to take it over because of the same reason, pouring money into a dud investment and also because I want nothing to do with it anymore.

I do everything regarding maintenance, paying bills, liaising with property manager etc and he basically just pays his share of the shortfall into the account each month and that's it.

I'm fully aware I have got myself into this predicament and unfortunately dragged my parents along for the ride but at least they're being awesome about it and not on my back about selling it. I just feel bad because it will free them up some more in retirement.

I've since bought 4 good performing IP's in my own name so I've learnt from my mistakes. I just don't know what to do here. I know I need to seek legal advice but even then is there anything I can do because we are joint tenants?

Can i force a sale?
Or should I pour more money into it and buy him out? Because he is not willing to buy me out.. :(

Thanks for any help in advance if anyone can !
 
Buy him out at market and sell it, if he will agree to that.

Your parents should withdraw their guarantee too. They are on the hook for the capital amount but it puts the bank on notice should they let any arrears blow out.

No you can't force the sale. I find this odd, because a bankruptcy trustee can force a sale in jointly held property.
 
actually you should act to wrap this up some how. If he stops paying for any reason - voluntary or otherwise - you are stuffed... your credit record will be trashed, by the time it gets resolved you won't be getting a loan or any sort of credit for 12 years or so
 
Sounds like you could use family law to force the sale.

Overall it sounds like you've been covering the majority of the costs for the 4 years...? No wonder your ex doesn't want to give it up...
 
Sorry i should have mentioned we both pay even amounts into the bank account from where the mortgage, rates, body corp etc come out of.

It's just that I want to get out of it asap. But because I can't force him to sell and he doesn't want to take it on himself, I don't know the best way to get me and my parents off.

If i refinance, it probably means I have to come up with at the very least 5%. Probably 10% so it would be like $30K... And then if I sell straight away I'll probably lose another $15K in agent/settlement fees. Would everyone agree cutting my losses is the best way forward?
 
On the bright side, you can carry forward the loss and offset it against any capital gains that you may make by selling one of your other properties.
 
Have you sought legal advice under the family law act ?

Was an agreement on this property made when your property settlement was done after splitting up?

Could be worth getting advice from this angle to speed up a conclusion IMO.
 
Generally there are 2 avenues

1. The relevant property act - have a trustee appointed to force a sale

2. Family Law Act, s79 - court can order change in ownership.

Best to get legal advice asap.

I had a client approach me with a similar situation. She had her parents as guarantor, bloke did a runner, property sold at a loss and she had been paying the loan off for 10+ years on her own.
 
Generally there are 2 avenues

1. The relevant property act - have a trustee appointed to force a sale

2. Family Law Act, s79 - court can order change in ownership.

Best to get legal advice asap.

In WA, the family law provisions are almost certainly the better ones to use by the way.

Bomber, I'm a family lawyer and if you needed some referrals, you can PM me. I personally don't take on these sort of matters myself (because I work for free), but I know a range of different private family lawyers.

I don't think it would cost too much either overall - this is the sort of thing that you can probably mostly do yourself with just some legal advice along the way.
 
Could you make him an offer to buy him out, if you are $30k down on market value, $15 either way, offer him $7/8 or 10 and he signs it all over to you. You would then be free to sell or keep as a longer term investment . Evidently the market is coming up on the Gold Coast (I dont know where you are) but if you got a re-evaluation you might be surprised and might get enough to cover your costs
 
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