Name on title - mean half of sale?

[psmOhio]

Live in Ohio- my husband and I cosigned for a loan for my son and at the time fiance. She left him and the house in Nov 04. She has paid nothing since, and even the 2 years prior, I probably paid at least half of their bills.
Anyway- her name and my son's name are on title. We want to sell house, but we do not want to give her half of anything. Her parents have already approached us regarding $3000.00 that they gave as a gift for the down payment. If we sell the house is she automatically entitiled to half of the profit? We thought about buying the house for what is owed, putting our names on the title and then turning around and selling for profit. Not sure how or if this would work either. WE are getting crunched for time, as my son cannot afford to live there on his own.

[elklaw]

If she is on title, she is presumptively half owner of the home. What may be best is if your son and her can talk and come to a resolution whereby she signs over/deeds her half interest in the home to him. You may have to pay her for it, but based on what you are saying there may not be much to pay her. A calculation like what is the value minus the amount owed on the mortgage minus your costs making payments on the son and fiance's behalf while they were together and after she left, minus half of the son's costs of staying in the home since she has left, minus other costs paid by you on the home (eg. property taxes, maintenance, etc....), then divide that by 2 and that is the amount owed. I suspect that if you do this calculation that she would be owed at most a few thousand, unless you are in a high appreciation area. Find as many receipts or cancelled checks as possible to support this. If you go to court, they would be looking at about the same things in terms of coming to a property division, or they would order the place sold, then proceeds divided after costs of sale, if there are any.

As for her parents, it sounds like they made a gift toward down payment for their daughter, and they are not co-signers, so what they think does not really matter.

[psmOhio]

Thanks- what about the idea of us purchasing the house at cost. Then her name would be off title. Then if we turn around and sell- she has no claims.

You mentioned her signing over/deeds half her interest to him? How would we go about that. I mean what kind of legal paperwork? I do have most of the cancelled checks.

[sephir]

If you want her off the Deed, I think she would need to consent. The simplest way is to have her sign a Quitclaim Deed (which typically includes some payment for consideration ... such payment does not necessarilly need to equal half the value of the home, it could be significantly less) and record that Deed with your county clerk. If you want to protect yourself even more, you could ask her to enter into a Contract of Sale which lays out the terms of any agreement you reach.