Co-ownership is becoming quite the thing these days, and it all works beautifully if you get along with everyone and no one pulls out or dies and leaves his share to a cousin. Indeed, if one of the co-owners does pass away, their share of the property goes to their heirs, who become the new co-owners or "co-heirs," requiring a legal process to define and adjudicate the inheritance.
Let us look at the case of several children inheriting a single property – to be divided up peacefully, but then in time, maybe the children of the children become involved. It’s a mess. Should you buy a property with, as it were, a bit missing (now owned by a cousin who lives in Argentina)? Certainly not. Google AI says: ‘A property with multiple owners is legally known as ‘un proindiviso’, a joint ownership or co-ownership, where the property is not physically divided, but rather each owner has a share or percentage of the entire property without a specific, delimited portion. This situation commonly occurs after an inheritance or a joint purchase. To sell, modify, or enjoy the property, the agreement of all co-owners is generally required, although any co-owner can request the division of the property’.
Many years ago, I was living with a girlfriend in a large house (with three kitchens) divided into five shares by the grandfather. For some reason, we had two fifths. When the old auntie died (she lived upstairs), my companion became the owner of another chunk of the house: closing off a door, and with an outside staircase, it became a rental. This after the old girl had failed to leave a will, and the other relatives (about twenty of them showed up for a meeting) had agreed to waive their share of the three rooms in question.
A fourth fifth belongs to some company, and they had never used or claimed it. We knocked a hole through the wall and occupied it as an office.
The fifth fifth, that’s to say, the remaining bit, belonged to a cousin who rented it out to African field workers.
A house like that is largely unsaleable, unless my friend were to previously buy the cousin out (no doubt he would be after a sizeable chunk of money) – and probably ratify the two rooms she took from the company who had ignored them ever since they were sold (along with a piece of land) by another cousin some forty years previously.
No doubt the abogados could help.
So, the lesson here is – don’t buy a house with various owners – even if one of them ‘never shows up’. If you inherit a property, or rather part of one, then maybe insure it heavily against a surprise fire.
I used to know an English poet (and his elderly mother) who would spend a few months each year in Bédar (a charming village in Almería) endlessly searching for something that rhymed with ‘orange’ (or for that matter, naranja). They had a gypsy family living in the same small and rather cramped house – since they owned a share. Rather a large gypsy family as I remember.
Unsurprisingly, they didn’t have much in common with John and his mum, although they would all enjoy an occasional evening with John’s guitar.
In answer to all of this, I was intrigued to find an advertisement from some outfit that can solve your co-ownership problems by buying you out. They say: ‘Not owning a home in its entirety is difficult, but being able to sell your portion doesn't have to be. Find speed and security with a company that buys your share’ (I’ve got their address if you’re interested). One can only imagine how they turn a profit.
As for getting rid of the Argentinian co-owner (and his seven children), perhaps it’s for the best to hope that he never shows up. If you still want to buy, then – says the always helpful Google AI – ‘to purchase a property with multiple owners (a joint ownership), you must obtain the consent of all co-owners for the sale, sign the purchase agreement with all of them, or have one co-owner sell their share to another owner, and process the purchase through a public deed before a notary…’. Good luck with that. If on the other hand, you are thinking of just buying one share, or maybe winning it at cards, then I would say you need to think again…
Divorce, inheritance, another usufruct co-owner, a fellow with bagpipes and dibs on the bathroom… all these and other reasons make a quiet and enchanting little house in a forgotten pueblo – or maybe a flat off La Gran Vía – an utterly hopeless proposition.
Huh! We didn’t even get to time-share…