Joint owner of house difficulties

A question about : Joint owner of house difficulties

My sister is in the process of trying to sell her house, she owns it along with our cousin. Our cousin never lived in the house or paid towards it and went on the mortgage and deeds to allow my sister to get the house 10 years ago.

The solicitors have wanted ID and paperwork signing and we have got this from my cousin. The solicitor now wants further ID and to speak to our cousin to gain consent for the funds to go solely to my sister.

We now cant make contact with our cousin, she isn't answering our calls or the solicitors. This has been going on for a month now. Not sure if she is trying to make money here although the sale cant proceed without her ID.

My sister has cancer and lives with me, if she cant sell her house it will either have to be repossessed and she will lose her 40k equity or she will have to rent it to pay the mortgage. Is there anything else she can do?

Best answers:

• She should take advice from her solicitor.
  Ultimately, she could get a court order to allow the sale without the cousin's consent - but you're a very long way from that (and the court order might well say the cousin gets some of the equity).
  Can you speak to the cousin's parents, or to any other family members, to find out what's happened? Maybe cousin is ill?
• Does cousin own half of the house?
• Tenants in common, or joint tenants?
  If both are on the mortgage, then the lender won't repossess before knocking very hard on the cousin's door, and she'll get just as big a ding on her credit record as your sister will. Perhaps reminding her of that small detail will help to extract her digit.