You own a property with someone you planned your future with, bought it together as an investment, or obtained title together, but there comes a time when you decide you need to separate your interest in the property but the other owner won’t agree. What do you do? You pursue a partition action.
When a property is owned jointly with another person, and you want to separate your ownership interest and sell the property but the other owner won’t cooperate you can ask the court to partition the property. In a partition case the court can order the public or private sale of a property. Once sold the court can determine how the proceeds of the sale should be distributed between the owners based on their ownership interests, give set-offs and credits for things like; upkeep of the property, the payment of the property’s expenses, the cost of mutually approved improvements to the property, and to the extent to which one owner is out of possession of the property they may be entitled to a portion of the fair rental value of the property from the owner in possession.
Where the joint owners are married partition is often alleged as part of a divorce case so as to give the court options beyond what equitable distribution may provide for. Technically the partition can only happen after the parties are divorced.
If you need to separate your interests in a property from a co-owner, or need to discuss partition as part of a family law or divorce case, with an attorney with experience in partition of real property please contact us to arrange a consultation.