Q: Me & my ex partner separated shortly after buying a home together we only lived together in the house for a month.
She refuses to vacate the property, list for sale, and remove herself from the deed. I called the bank to remove my bank information for the monthly payments but they stated it had be authorized by both which she is not cooperating. I had a lawyer I was working with but he has been stating for the last 7 months that he is waiting on a letter that he’s pushing a motion or something of that sort. He told me to continue paying the mortgage. But there has been no progress. We were never married and no kids.
A:
When two or more persons own a home together, each owner has the right to occupy the home absent a written agreement to the contrary signed by all of the owners. An owner can only sell that owner's interest and it requires all of the owners cooperating together to sell the entire interest in the property to someone else. One owner cannot compel another owner to "remove herself from the deed."
At any time any individual owner can file a lawsuit to partition the property by sale. The court almost always will grant such a request and enter an order for partition by sale allocating the net proceeds equitably between the owners based on the evidence presented to the court. I suspect that is what your lawyer has filed. Most lawsuits for partition can be successfully resolved within a year of when they are filed.
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