A widowed mother owns a $250K home in Philadelphia PA and plans to
leave it to her three (adult) children in her will. When such time
comes and all three are owners, what options exist when 1 or 2 wish to
sell their share (but the sibling(s) are unable to afford to buy them
out or qualify for a morgage?) I'm wondering if all 3 owners need to
sell collectively, or could 1 owner hold up the sale of the other
shares indefinately. Thank you.

< The co-owner of a property has two remedies for selling his/her
share if the other co-owners are not in agreement with the sale of the
property. The legal term used is partition. A co-owner has the right
to seek partition in one of two ways – partition in kind or by sale.

Partition in kind is the physical division of the property so that
each owner has a separate share. For example if there are three
co-owners of a large property that is divided up into six apartments,
it is a simple matter for the court to order that each co-owner
receives title to two apartments. As the individual owners then have
title to their own parts of the property they can sell them.

If it is impractical to divide a property because it is for example a
single house on a small piece of land then it is possible to seek
partition by sale. Here one co-owner can force the others to sell the
property in its entirety with the proceeds of the sale being divided
between the co-owners. The owner does this by making an application to
a court for sale by partition.

Co-ownership and condominium explains the law surrounding the joint
ownership of property. A link is given below.>


<Additional links:>

<Co-ownership and condominium.>
<http://encyclo.findlaw.com/1400book.pdf>

<Pros and cons of joint tenancy home ownership.>
<http://www.inman.com/inf/parealtor/story.asp?ID=31537>

<Supreme court ruling – an example of a case for partition.>
<http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/appeals/opinions/20020220/00-1524.asp>


<Search strategy:>

<"shared ownership " -uk "right to sell">
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22shared+ownership+%22+-uk+%22right+to+sell%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&start=20&sa=N>


<Hope this helps.>

This was my first Google question. I am pleasantly surprized at the
speed and clear answer to my question. It has saved me hours of
searching myself. It is quite acceptable. Thank you.

I'm not an expert in real estate, but speaking in terms of common
sense I'd ask myself exactly how would my adult children utilize 1/3
ownership of a house?  Would they want to keep it and live in it
together (I doubt this is likely), or possibly rent it out and split
the responsibility and profit three ways?  If they decided to rent it
out, would they be able to cooperate in this type of business venture?
 Would they even be willing to rent out their mother's house
considering the emotional ties they might have to it?  You should talk
to your children and ask them what they think about sharing ownership
of this house and ask them what they plan on doing with said
ownership.  An easier solution, considering you want them to benefit
equally from your estate, might be to indicate in your will that the
house be sold and the proceeds split between your children.  I hope
this helps.

Thank you Chud for your comment (is your name related to the old
horror movie C.H.U.D.?)

There are variables involved that may make it difficult for each child
to start a new household with just 1/3 share of the proceeds at this
stage in their life.
 
Now I understand that any one child could force the sale, even if
there was a remaining sibling living in the home. This is significant
to me.