Selling a property with several owners can occur when the situation in which the property was purchased is no longer the same. Thus, it is common to want to dissolve a shared property when there is an inheritance in which several heirs accepted the house for themselves, or before a separation or divorce.
A shared property is also known as joint ownership, condominium or co-ownership, and is regulated in article 392 of the Civil Code.
At a legal level, this means that the rights of each co-owner are partial: by sharing ownership and a percentage of the property, none of the owners can make decisions about the property individually. The authorization of the rest of the co-owners is required.
Some of the rights of the co-owner are to manage the property, to be able to request the division of the property at any time and to access their percentage of the property. As obligations, there is having to reach an agreement to manage the shared property.
In the case of a home, it is an indivisible asset. In order to use it, it is necessary to have access to all rooms. It is not possible to distribute them among the owners, but an economic division can be made.
When a condominium is dissolved, it is a question of fixing the value of the home, resorting, if necessary, to a market appraisal, to liquidate the co-ownership.
The part that does not want to sell can buy the other parts or those who do want to sell can sell their part to a third party, staying out of the ownership interest. Another option is to rent the house, although that would mean keeping the condominium.
If all the owners agree to dissolve the joint ownership, the most common is to award a percentage of the home to each party and sell it to a third party. The money is distributed among the co-owners according to the percentage they have assigned and also paying the corresponding taxes, such as municipal capital gains and personal income tax. In this case, it is recommended to go to a professional who is in charge of the sale of the property to obtain the best objective value.
Mediation is the procedure by which an agreement can be reached, and it is recommended to resort to it to get the party that does not want to sell to give in and avoid going to trial. It is necessary to have professional mediators to agree on what will happen to the home and manage a conciliation deed before a notary. Once accepted, it is a binding agreement for all co-owners.
When a sale agreement is not reached between the co-owners, it is necessary to resort to the courts to request the extinction of the condominium. For this, it is necessary to have the advice of legal professionals, because each home or property may have a different situation, since it is not the same if it comes from an inheritance, a business dissolution or a separation or divorce.
The first step that co-owners who want to sell their part have to take is to send a legal burofax through a lawyer to the rest of the co-owners in which they are urged to put the property up for sale.
The extinction of the condominium or separation of the undivided property is a legal action that is reflected in the first paragraph of article 400 of the Civil Code, which indicates that neither party is obliged to remain in joint ownership. If one party wants to sell a property with several co-owners and cannot because the other parties refuse, the procedure to follow is the sale of the property by public auction. A legal expert appraises the home and orders its sale at public auction.
The current co-owners and third parties can participate in this auction. The co-owner will not have to make a security deposit and, if his offer is the winner, he will only have to pay the amount that results from subtracting the amount corresponding to his current percentage of the home. The money obtained will be divided among the remaining co-owners based on the percentage of the property that they initially owned.
Regarding the costs of action, the judicial auction is free by the court, but the fees of a lawyer and a solicitor must be paid. It is a long and expensive procedure, so it is recommended to have the help of expert professionals in this type of extinction of the condominium by judicial means.
In addition, the price of the house with respect to the market can be very low. These are aspects to consider: it is possible that all parties lose out, although the undivided property will end.
