Distant Estranged Uncle Demands He Get Half Of My Mother’s Home Equity For His Ruined Credit Score Despite Not Contributing A Dime Towards Property Expenses.

First time posting here, so I’ll try to make my explanation detailed yet as concise as I can make it. I need the advice due to my lack of knowledge and experience in the matter.

For starters, my parents got divorced 3 years ago. My father is completely out of the picture but has left various financial problems behind for my mother to resolve. Our family home is on the brink of foreclosure because of the HOA fees my father has failed to pay over several years. Currently the fees have racked up to over $9000. My mother is self employed but barely makes enough to pay monthly expenses and bills.

My parents bought our home here in California several years ago, so the home equity has appreciated greatly since then. Taking out some of the home equity would be the only way my mother could pay off all the debts my father has left her with. The problem is that although my father is not in the property title, his uncle is. Long story short, when my parents wanted to buy our home, the only thing they did not have in order to do so was a good credit score. I am not exactly sure who pitched the idea first or how things ended up playing out but my father’s uncle (who married into the family), agreed to lend his credit score so that they could purchase the house. He told them he would help them out as I favor and only asked that they be responsible with the mortgage payments.

Some years later, I was admitted to the ICU of a children’s hospital located 2 hours away after being diagnosed with blood cancer. My mother as a result had to step away from managing our home in order to tend to me, leaving my father to look after my younger siblings and take charge of their financial responsibilities. He failed to do as such and consequently ruined his uncle’s credit score. My mother was too busy aiding me in the hospital to realize what was going on then and in the meantime my father avoided his uncle like the plague.

Since the divorce, my father has completely disappeared, evading all responsibility for his actions and his debts. The aforementioned uncle, hence not being able to reach my father, had then turned to bombarding my mother with dozens of phone calls and messages demanding she sell the house and give him $20,000 from the home’s equity as compensation for his ruined credit score. Selling the house would not be in our best interest so my mother has discarded it as an option entirely then and now. My mother agreed to pay him the $20,000 so long as they legally removed him from the house title. The uncle had initially accepted her offer but when it came time to sign papers, he then demanded another $10,000 on top of the $20,000 they had agreed upon. My mother had barely pooled the $20,000 together through small loans and familial favors and thus told him she was unable to give him more. In the end, the uncle refused to cooperate further.

There was no communication between each other afterward for some time up until 2 days ago. After more excessive calling, he let my mother know that he learned exactly how much our home was worth and was now demanding she pay him HALF of our home’s equity. My mother is completely floored and has no idea what to do. Hiring a lawyer without knowing for sure if they will be able to help would be costly on top of what she has already spent during the divorce and the legal battle with the association. The best case scenario for us would be for the uncle to be out of the title so that my mother can take out some of the home’s equity to pay off the HOA fees and prevent the foreclosure of our home.

Now here’s where I ask for legal advice. Is the uncle entitled to half of the equity? Is he entitled to anything at all if he has never, in the 8 years she has owned the house, contributed a dime towards mortgage payments, HOA fees, repairs, or any sort of property expenses? I am being 100% serious when I say that I have only seen this uncle a total of 3 times in my life (I'm 20). Is there some way my mother can take him out of the title despite his lack of cooperation? Is there a better way my mom can legally handle this situation? I would really appreciate any advice given, especially if you can provide something solid I could show my mom. Thanks in advance.