She put my name on the deed hoping it would keep her husband from finding out.....she is 2/3 owner and I am 1/3. Neither I nor my relator [sic]friend can find her name anywhere in the county record files where we live. I don't want to make things worse between us but I want to know if I can change the locks? She has stated she wants all her money now....it is impossible for me to do that...I'm at my wits end!
Stop fretting! There is no need to be so frazzled.
It is in deed a complicated set of circumstances. But more difficult for her than you.
Because even if she were able to establish a recognizable claim of legal ownership and thus create an estate in cotenancy (joint ownership), she would be unable to carry out her current demands.
Meaning she could not require you to purchase her interest or force a sale of the property against your wishes without engaging in a complicated and very expensive and time consuming court action for partition. And that could only result in the court ordering that it be sold. (See
North Carolina General Statutes Section 46-22 Sale in lieu of partition)
Moreover, before she could have any standing in court to seek a judicial sale of the property she would first need to establish her claim of co-ownership through another expensive, costly and time consuming lawsuit known as an action to quiet title.
And the difficulty in her being able to quiet title in her name as a co-owner is getting around the statute of frauds. Which essentially renders any agreement conveying an interest in land other than a lease for one year or less, unenforceable unless signed by the party to be charged, meaning
you.
SO . . . . if your erstwhile friend wants to continue to make your life as miserable as hers with other than hollow threats, she better have a valise full of banded hundred dollar bills that she has no particular use for! And plunk it down on her attorney's desk and watch his mouth first drop and then drool.
I'm not saying that she doesn't have some equitable right to a partial interest in the condo; nor that she couldn't avoid the statute of frauds under a theory of substantial partial performance, or a constructive trust (as trany proposed). But she is a long way from having it legally corroborated.
But suppose she does establish her ownership rights? Like as above, or you agreeing to quitclaim an equal undivided interest. Then she becomes equally liable for the debt load whether or not she chooses to move back in or stay with her husband.
