What happens when you find yourself co-owning property you no longer want?

The operative words may be partition action.

As promised in the cannabis post I am relaying additional information I gleaned from the same legal seminar. The topic this time regards what happens when you find yourself co-owning property you no longer want? The operative words may be partition action.

“Partition is the dividing of co-tenants’ interest in real property” according to The Language of Real Estate.

“Partition action” is a legal procedure when a co-tenant wants to force the sale of real property. How and why does this occur you may ask?

Disagreement on retaining or disposing or real property.

Problems arise when all parties do not agree on retaining or disposing of real property. Two instances come to mind. My first example is when unmarried persons purchase a home as equal partners, a split occurs, and one person wants the property sold and the other doesn’t. A second example, and probably a more often occurrence, concerns inheriting a property by multiple individuals. Here again, we may have a case where one person or group wants the entire property sold and others do not want to sell.

So what is the pro-sale person to do? One option is to come to an agreed-to value and ask the hold-out(s) for a buy-out. If not possible, then the hiring of a lawyer would be appropriate.

The attorneys at the seminar stated that courts are not prone to make a person remain an owner against their will. When a partition action is litigated, courts will usually side with the plaintiff and force a sale of the property. The defendant may be in jeopardy of paying court costs as well. If the real estate is eligible for subdividing, then that may become the solution, giving the plaintiff(s) the ability to sell their awarded partition.

So the best outcome is for all parties to come to an agreement on retention/disposition and not go to court and possibly destroy relationships. I have experience with the threat of partition action that did not go well, and relationships were affected.

My advice, should you find yourself at loggers-head talk to an attorney and try to come to a non-judicial conclusion. If not possible then your attorney will walk you through all the steps for forcing a partition action.

Good luck if you should find yourself in the situation defined above. Keep the lines of communication open, and hopefully, the outcome will be a win for all concerned.