Hello. I live in Massachusetts and own a two family home with my brother. We inherited it from my dad when he died and still have the same two tenants living in the units. My brother is older than I am and is planning to get married in a couple of months to a woman that I would describe as challenging. They seem to fight often and, frankly, I'm not convinced the marriage will last very long. So my question is whether it's possible to somehow force my brother to enter a prenuptial agreement with his fiancee that stipulates that if they get a divorce then he keeps his half of the property and nothing will have to change in our ownership arrangement? Is that possible and are prenuptials enforceable in Massachusetts? I get along pretty well with my brother, but he doesn't' want to talk about selling the property. He just keeps saying he won't get a divorce.
Submitted by WDJ on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 07:54
Posted in
Forced prenuptial
Generally speaking, pre-nuptial agreements are enforceable in Massachusetts, but you can't force your brother or his fiancee to enter one. It sounds like you are in a tough situation. I understand your concern about the possibility of divorce, but I don't believe there is any way you can assure yourself that you and your brother will continue to own the house together. If you feel you no longer want to own the house with the issue of the joint ownership hanging over your head, and your brother continues to refuse to discuss either selling the property or entering an arrangement where one of you buys out the other, than you can look into a petition for partition, a legal mechanism that allows one co-owner to force another to allow the sale of a property. By using the petition to partition, you can force your brother to sell the property, with you, to a third party, or you can force your brother to sell his half of the property to you. Good luck to you.