Do you really want to deal with this for 5 years in one way or another by being the landlord of his stuff?
Get a loan. Give him $17,000 now. Separate your financial interests now.
This crap is soooo not worth it. Perhaps you are beginning to get an inkling as to why. He thinks he has a say so in what you do financially based on your personal life in some imagined future years from now. This isn't going to go away.
If you are ever a day late or a dollar short, he is going to make his reaction contingent on how you live your life, what you've spent your money on, and how recently you've had a date. He is going to feel as though he has a right to intrude and judge because you owe him money. He is going to be all over you life tainting it in small toxic ways until this is DONE.
Make it done.
Get a loan, pay him off. Sell the house. Whatever. Separate your financial interests now, get his stuff out of your life now. Not 5 years from now, on either count.
