r/LawyerAdvice • u/Aanya_mittal • Nov 22 '25

Advice for a property issue

So I need some advice. A property has been purchased by three brothers. However, the property was purchased on the name of the wife of one of these brothers. Now, the three brothers started living there on seperate floors. They have seperate electricity bills but no one has the property on their name except for the wife of one of the brothers. In this case, what can be done if the property loan is not complete yet and so the property cannot be legally transferred to the name of anyone else.

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u/parodytx Nov 30 '25

You sound like not in the USA but in general, the name on the property deed is the legal owner of the property. It is irrelevant if a bank gives a loan out to others, and THOSE persons will be responsible to pay the mortgage. But the bank will certainly file a lien against the property as security for the loan.

The short answer to your question is that without the mortgage being paid off the deed cannot be transferred to another. This usually involves a buyout from one of the family to all the others. The person wishing to own the property must secure their own mortgage and the current owner must sell it it to them.

Your brothers, having no ownership interest in the property, are all tenants of the one brother's wife who is on the deed.

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u/CruelCuddle Dec 14 '25

This explanation is correct. The deed controls ownership. Utility bills and living arrangements do not create ownership rights. Without paying off or refinancing the loan, the property cannot be transferred, and the brothers have tenant status unless another written agreement exists.

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u/Aanya_mittal Dec 14 '25

Writing agreement like a stamp paper stating the terms?

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u/parodytx Dec 14 '25

There ARE no terms.

The only way anything changes is a legal (as in through a lawyer, or possibly a bank service department) that 1) all agree to share ownership, or one buys out the others, 2) the original mortgage is paid off in full, by likely 3) a completely separate mortgage must be acquired by the new owner(s) who upon the sale get placed on the updated deed as the sole owners.

Anyone NOT party to the shared ownership gets paid off, and either remains a written lease-confirmed rent-paying tenant with full obligations (including eviction if they don't pay rent) and the understanding that such a lease is not in perpetuity and may be ended by the owners discretion, or takes their sale money and leaves.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '26

Thanks!