Hi, I have a situation involving my house that I hope you guys can offer me some advice on.

First, the short version. There is a house that's under the name of my brother and myself. He wants to sell but I don't. A compromise can't be met. So I'm worried that he'll go to a judge to order a partition.

Now a middle-long version. I'll try to keep as much of the he-say/I-say aspect out of this. Obviously, this is from my point of view/recollection. But at the least, I want to explain WHY I don't want to sell.

It's not that I'm unwilling to sell. I don't WANT to sell but I'm WILLING to sell. Bear in mind, I've lived in this house since around 2012(?) and pay the quit rent/assessment. I am 42 years old and a bachelor with no children. My brother has his own place and children.

My grandmother passed her single story bungalow in Ipoh, down to my brother and myself. My father had power of attorney and we've basically treated the house as his. In 2020, he came down with cancer and passed away pretty suddenly. Turns out, power of attorney didn't give him the power to transfer the house wholly to me and by then, he was too sick to order my brother to transfer to me, before he passed away. In his will, my father passed everything to me as he already gave my brother some other properties years ago. But of course, he couldn't pass ownership of the house wholly to me.

After my father passed away, my brother verbally agreed that however much we sell the house for, I would get 200K so I can shift to a low cost house and we would split the remainder 50/50. I even gave him an advance of 50K.

I would like to sell for at least 1.2 million. I realize that's tough in today's economy but I'm willing to hold. Worst case, I would gladly will my share to my brother or his children.

However, suddenly, he wants 300K NOW. So he wants to sell the house for 700K and says that I only requested 100K to cover a new house for myself. Even in Ipoh, a low cost house is around 200-250K nowadays. After fees and assorted costs, I would probably be left with just around 100K if we sell at that price.

I tried to say that we would profit more if we hold on for a few years. I said okay, if he can find a buyer for the price I want, I'll do it, but he doesn't even want to try. I even offered to buy him out, but I'm just a B40 with less than 2500 salary, so I said I would give him my savings + slowly pay him over time, but he wants 300K NOW.

He wants me to refinance the house but I cannot afford to basically take on a 300K+ debt to the bank. I'm already living from salary to salary right now. Even if the bank agrees to refinance, it means I'll have to suffer until retirement, at which point, I'll basically be bankrupted/ruined because of this.

I've been stressed about this for months. I've actually lost sleep because of this. I have never in all my life, gambled before but I've been buying the lottery since last month.

So what I'm most worried now is whether he could get a court order to sell? What are the grounds for a partition? Is there any way I can protect myself? This is a buyer's market. If the court orders us to sell, I'm going to get screwed. If I sell at the price he wants, I'll get screwed.

Thanks for at least letting me vent.

Sorry, I didn't see your earlier posts on partitions. I'm glad to hear that.

I actually have one possible non-legal recourse. Which is to approach my relatives and ask that they buy him out. It would mean I'll definitely have to sell the house eventually in order to repay them.

The good/bad news is that they're already quite senior, and may not want to help by dipping into their retirement funds for what is realistically, an "investment" that they are unlikely to personally benefit from, as who knows how long it'll take me to sell and how many years they have left?

Anyway, that's just me venting. Thank you for your knowledge drop.