What options do i have if my friend refuses to sell or refinance a house?

Barbera
Here's the story, I cosigned for a friend for her home since she would not qualify for a mortgage on her own. The agreement was she was supposed to remove me from the mortgage after one year by either refinancing or selling the home for profit. Well now it's been 5 years and she now refuses to sell or refinance the house and remove my name because of the declining market and also because her credit is horrible right now. The good thing is she's been paying on time and has never been late on the mortgage. But now I want to buy my own home thru FHA since it only requires 3% down payment instead of conventional loan which is 5% or more and I do not have that kind of money. She refuses to give me any money to help out. What are my options?

Belia
talk to a real estate lawyer to see what your option maybe at this point, but verbal hard to enforce esp in real estate transaction and the statute of frauds problembut if your friend will not help it may cost you some bucks to litigate this one talking easily 15K and up

Beau
Was the agreement in writing? If not, you may have to get a lawyer because you may be on title to the home & may have a right to try to sell the home. She may be right about the economy though. You might not be able to get what you need out of the sale of the home. You really don't have a right to refinance though.

Dave
Approach the mortgage company and ask their advice, or call a solicitor and get legal advice, depends how you signed- but you should be able to force her to pay up or selland next time- don't do it!

Elizbeth
both the previous posters pretty much have this correct. Hopefully you have the agreement in writing. If not, you had better be in title to the property. If your not in title, you are in a bad way unfortunately as you really do not have any legal ground to stand on. Hopefully you are in title to the property to which you can threaten legal action, but find out the title question first. If you don't know, let me know, there may be a way to find out, depending on where the property is located or call the county clerk's office where the property is and see if they will tell you, good luck

Lyndia
Oh...I will tell you how you can QUICKLY get her to agree.Guess what? Since you are on the mortgage, you are most likely on the title of the home as well (and if you are not, I can tell you now that you are SOL without going to court...b/c that is legally being obligated to a mortgage when you have no legal rights to the property).So, if your name is on the title, you OWN 50% of the equity in that property...tell her you will be willing to waive that right if she sells it (she obviously cannot refinance it). Tell her if you have to go to court (and a court will not force you to stay in a real estate transaction if you don't want to...and will order the home sold and the proceeds SPLIT equally), you'll take 50% of the equity...but if she does it voluntarily, you'll sign your half over at the closing table.I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that your name be on the title, because if you only signed the mortgage note and your name isn't on the title, you are going to have a huge legal battle on your hands.PS: If both of you are on the title, neither one of you can sell the home without the signature of the other.