Recently in the news there was a story about two couples who bought a duplex together in 2001. This was the only way they could afford a place. Since then each of the couple has lost their spouse. The property is now worth an estimated value of 3.29M and one of the two remaining owners wants to sell. The other adamantly wants to stay.
As with all these group purchases, it should be viewed as a business relationship. There should be an agreement that clearly states all the roles and duties as well as what happens in various possible scenarios such as when one party wants to sell and the other does not. This will save friendships not to mention large legal bills.
You don’t know what people’s expectations are until you have them put it on paper. A friend told me one of his partners said to him, “I am running low on cash, why don’t you make the mortgage payments and I’ll pay you back when we sell the place”. Somehow this “friend” thinks this is acceptable. Have your friend take all the risk, put out all the money and he just come in for the profit in the end. Some people’s kids☹
In this recent case, it went all the way to the supreme court and the Judge ruled for the owner who did not want to sell the property. As in all such cases, only one side is happy with the verdict. Note this is quite a special case with special circumstances. Typically, there is a forced sale by the lower courts and would end there.
If this was set up like a business from the start, there would have been ways to settle this without going to court. In most businesses with partners, there would be a buy/sell agreement in case of the death of one of the partners. The reasoning is that while the partners work well together, it doesn’t mean anyone of them wants to run the business with the partner’s spouse should the partner die. So an agreement is made that upon death the remaining party will buy the other side out. And the agreement is set up with matching life insurance policies to provide funds for the purchase should one party pass away. This way, everyone is happy.
