I am currently staying at the home build by my father. My father expired five years ago withough dividing the house between his children. We are 4 brothers and 1 sister and I am the eldest son. All my brothers and sisters are married and staying in different parts of the country. I am the only one staying at my father's place. Now, two of the brothers want to sell their part of the house. But given there is no demarcation of the house as to which part belongs to whom, how is this possible? Can I avoid selling of the house in any way given there is no demarcation till the time I am living there as I do not own another house where I can move?
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1) co owner can sell share of property without consent of other co owners
2) purchaser can file suit for partition for division of property by metes and bounds
3) if you refuse for amicable division of property your brothers can without selling share in property file suit for partition
4) suit woukd take years to be disposed of
Without partition the property cannot be sold. If you are not willing to sell the house then the brothers desirous of selling their share can file a suit for partition to cull out their separate share which can then be sold by them.
The dwelling house. if cannot be partitioned then the court may decide to bring the entire property into auction.
Your brother cannot insist to sell the property if you are not willing to do it.
They can file a partition suit seeking partition and separate possession of their entitled share in it.
The partition suits will take more than 5 years to get disposed, hence dont worry about it for the present and ask them to go ahead with the proposed partition suit.
1. Your brothers can file a partition suit and get the house partitioned by demarcating with metes and bounds,
2. They can also sell their undivided share to a third party who can file the partition suit,
3. However, if it is a dwelling house, your brothers shall have to offer their share of the property to be sold to you at the price which has been offered to them by the third party. it is called pre-emption,
4. They can sell their share of the property to a third party only when you refuse to buy the same at the same price offered to them by the third party.
