What do you do when the dual owner of a house refuses to leave or cooperate after signing the purchase and sale and a document to agree to sell the house? This is a nasty divorce situation. The divorce court’s finding was to sell the house and split the proceeds. He is occupying the house now and the closing is in 15 days.
The answer to this question is: I am not an attorney. You have to take this up with your divorce lawyer to see what can be done lawfully and without resort to the long arm of Colonel Colt.
It happens that I have a sale going on right now with a very similar situation. She’s gone, he remains, and he managed to kill two prior contracts with his recalcitrance. I represent the buyer on the third contract, but we got lucky: The divorce judge has ordered that the soon-to-be-ex-wife is solely authorized to negotiate and sign for both parties, with the proceeds to be split according to the judge’s orders.
I don’t know if this could work for you, but it is at least possible to resolve a conflict like this. I wish you good fortune…
Technorati Tags: real estate marketing
kaiser sose says:
Phoenix housing is chugging along Greg.
NOVEMBER SALES FROM MLS
2001 4,763
2002 5,312
2003 5,640
2004 8,021
2005 7,290
2006 5,283
CANCELLED 11/01/06-11/30/06 4,422
EXPIRED 11/01/06-11/30/06 3,215
CURRENT ACTIVES 45,260
December 1, 2006 — 8:34 am
Jim Duncan says:
I heard a local story about a similar situation – one where the buyer bought out the willing seller’s half of the ownership. And then moved in. And promised to walk around naked.
The unwilling seller sold his (or her, I don’t recall) share.
December 1, 2006 — 9:40 am
Greg Swann says:
> And promised to walk around naked.
I love it! Excellent solution to the problem.
December 1, 2006 — 10:14 am
Sam Chapman says:
I went through a divorce 8 years ago. My ex lived in the house but didn’t keep it up well and it was hard to schedule showings so agents stopped asking to show it. It sat and sat and sat. My attorney advised me that I could petition the court to place the house in receivership. If I had done that and the court had agreed, the court would have appointed a receiver to sell the property. The receiver would have had the responsibility for pricing and marketing the home for a quick sale. I was glad I didn’t have to go there, but it was an option.
December 1, 2006 — 3:36 pm
Jay Thompson says:
“It happens that I have a sale going on right now with a very similar situation. She’s gone, he remains, and he managed to kill two prior contracts with his recalcitrance.”
Must be something in the air. We’ve got a strikingly similar situation with a listing right now.
December 1, 2006 — 6:39 pm
John L. Wake says:
A Southeast Valley Realtor who gave a class at the Arizona School of Real Estate said he would approach divorcing sellers by at first by saying he would take care of all communications with the ex-spouse, if preferred.
He would meet with each ex-spouse separately and write two listing agreements, one for each clients interest in the home.
The two listing agreements didn’t have to be the same and they terms were not confided to the other ex-spouse.
The ex-spouses did not need to communicate with each other if they didn’t want to. He would handle all business communications related to the selling of the home.
At such an emotionally raw time, I can see that he provided a very valuable service.
December 3, 2006 — 8:30 pm