Can I be forced to sell my share of jointly owned property?

If you and your co-owner genuinely cannot reach agreement about the property, Maltese law does provide a mechanism, generally through an action for partition (diviżjoni) under provisions connected to the Civil Code, Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta, and the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure, Chapter 12 of the Laws of Malta, allowing a co-owner to apply to the court to have jointly owned property formally divided, and where the property cannot practically be physically divided between the owners, such as with a single residential property, the court can order the property to be sold, typically by judicial auction, with the proceeds then divided between the co-owners according to their respective ownership shares, meaning your co-owner could potentially pursue this route even against your wishes if informal agreement cannot be reached. Before this reaches a formal court process, it's often worth genuinely exploring whether a private resolution could work for both of you, such as you buying out your co-owner's share at a fairly assessed market value, which would allow you to keep the property while your co-owner still receives fair value for their interest, potentially achieving a better outcome for both parties than a forced judicial sale, which can take time and reduce the overall value ultimately realised through associated costs. If informal negotiation isn't working, it would be worth consulting a lawyer to understand your realistic position given a potential partition action, and to properly explore whether a buyout arrangement might be structured as a more favourable alternative for you specifically.