Partition Suit?
Q: I am a 20% owner of a vacation home along with four other 20% owners; we are all related. One of the owners has been trying to sell his share for the last two years, but to no avail. (Basically because he thinks a 20% share is worth 20% of the FMV.) He now wants to buy a house and is trying to force the issue by threatening to go to court to force a sale of the property if we do not buy out his share. One of the other owners would probably also want to sell, but three of us (60% total) do not want to sell. The person who wants to sell owes the "kitty" about $1,400 in "capital contributions" (the property is not held in a partnership, so I use the term liberally). He has always had a hard time with money, so none of the other owners force the issue of his non-payment. None of the other owners are behind in their contributions. The "60%" owners do not want to pay 20% of the FMV because we use the property just for vacations and have no intention of selling the property. We would like to keep it in the family for everyone's use. All family members (owners or not) can use the property for free. Is this a case where a partition suit would be successful, thus forcing us to sell the property (or bite the bullet and pay him 20% of the FMV)? What if he reduces his price below 20% FMV and we still refuse because it is not low enough? Any
A: Well, you don't mention anything about the original agreement that you must have made when you all bought the place. Was there one?? (Buying real estate as a group with no agreement is a =bad= idea!) In particular, there's no mention of the purchase being intended to be a "till death do us part" deal. If it wasn't, you probably ought to try to find a way to let the two people out of the deal. Just as the right thing to do.