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My mother deeded some land to her grandson, it is in his name only. She then co-signed the loan with Wells Fargo on his new house on that property. He is not working and is not making the house payments. She is on a fixed income, widowed, and cannot make the payments. Is there some way she can force him to sell the house? I am currently making the payments, but I can't afford to make them indefinitely. Help, please.

This answer assumes your mother lives in North Carolina. A co-signer can notify the lender in writing telling it to use all reasonable diligence to recover against the principal (the borrower) and any collateral that is security for the loan. The notice must be either served by the sheriff or sent by registered mail return-receipt requested. If the creditor fails to take action within 30 days of receiving the notice, the co-signer is discharged, but only to the extent that she was prejudiced by the failure to take action.

For example, suppose a co-signer on a car loan notified the lender to begin recovery against the principal and the creditor could have repossessed the car but took no action within 30 days. Then 35 days after the notice was received the car was wrecked and its value was reduced to zero. The lender is then out the full amount of the loan, but the surety is only responsible for the difference between the loan balance and the fair market value of the car before it was wrecked. In effect the co-signer has some protection from being worse off from the creditors failure to take action.

Sending a notice like that might pressure the grandson into selling the house.

I get a lot of questions about co-signing. People who agree to co-sign a loan need to understand that they are agreeing to pay it. If a lender is requiring a co-signer it is because it does not have confidence that the borrower will be able to pay. Most defaults occur because a person is unable to pay, even the most honest, diligent hardworking person can be laid off. Another lawyer put it this way:

Moral: NEVER co-sign or guarantee for anybody. Either refuse them or make them a gift of the money.

Who can garnish wages in NC? I understood it to be only IRS and child support, but a coworker is telling me now that collection agencies can for medical bills.

Public or not-for-profit hospitals can seek a court order for garnishment of up to 10% of the debtor's monthly disposable earnings. Debtors who can show that they earn 200% or less of the current federal poverty guidelines can contest the garnishment by showing proof of earnings. The garnishment can last for up to 60 months.

There is more to the garnishment process than that, but those are the basics of the law in North Carolina. I don't think it is commonly used.

Important fine print

The owner/operator of this website is Bryan Gates, an attorney in Winston-Salem, N.C. E-mailing a question to a website (even a cleverly designed website) is no substitute for live, in-person contact with an attorney if you have a legal problem. In order to avoid legal troubles of my own, I cannot answer questions about the laws of states other than North Carolina. For more information about The Law Guy, check out:

www.attorneygates.com

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