Co-ownership complicates a foreclosure in a specific way: most of the useful options need both owners to agree, and the process does not pause while that gets sorted out.
Where you both stand
If you both signed the mortgage, you are both generally responsible for it, regardless of who has been paying or who lives there. That surprises people after a relationship ends — moving out does not by itself remove you from the obligation you signed.
It also means the process affects you both, whether or not you are both engaging with it.
The practical problem
Selling generally needs both owners to sign. So does refinancing. If one owner wants to sell and the other refuses, or cannot be found, or simply will not engage, the file drifts — and drifting has a cost that grows monthly in interest and legal fees, reducing whatever either of you would have received.
The person who disengages is not protected by disengaging. They are just absent while their share shrinks.
If you cannot agree
Get legal advice early, specifically about your position as a co-owner. There are legal routes for dealing with co-owned property where owners cannot agree, and they take time — which is exactly the resource in short supply here. Starting that conversation in month one is a completely different situation from starting it in month six.
If the co-ownership arises from a relationship that has ended, there may be family law considerations alongside the foreclosure. Those are separate questions and a lawyer should look at both together, because a decision that makes sense for one can be poor for the other.
What each of you can do alone
Even without agreement, either owner can get information: a payout figure from the lender, the title record showing every registered charge, and an opinion of value. Either can get their own legal advice — and each of you should have your own, particularly if your interests differ.
What neither can do alone is sell. Which is why, if a sale is the sensible answer, the conversation with your co-owner is the urgent task, not a thing to put off until the situation is calmer. It does not get calmer.
Questions people ask
General information about the Alberta foreclosure process — not legal or financial advice, and nothing here guarantees an outcome. Every file is different.