Owning a vacation property can be a dream come true for owners of real property. That dream can quickly devolve into a nightmare if you own that vacation home with an uncooperative co-owner, however.
Indeed, many families buy a vacation property together. However, as the years go by, relationships can become strained through life, death, divorce, personality conflicts, shared living issues, and other challenges. One common challenge is how to share the vacation property throughout the year.
California Code of Civil Procedure Section 872.210 allows a co-owner to sell co-owned property, even if the other co-owner does not consent to the sale using the legal process known as a partition action. This is true whether the property is co-owned vacation property or the parties’ primary residence.
Having a co-owned vacation property in which all co-owners are in unanimous agreement of what to do with the property is certainly the easiest situation. However, it is not uncommon for co-owners to disagree on whether to keep or sell a vacation property.
A common scenario is when one party wants to sell while the other wants to keep the vacation property. So, does a co-owner who wants to sell a property need the consent of the other co-owner? The short answer is no – California courts have established that consent by co-owners is not required to force the sale of a vacation property because the right to partition is absolute.
Miller & Starr, the leading California real estate law treatise, explains that “each cotenant has an ‘absolute’ right to partition the common property.” Right of partition—In general, 4 Cal. Real Est. (4th ed.) § 11:14.
A vacation property can pose unique complications in the partition process. Contacting an experienced partition attorney can help.
Talkov Law's Partition Attorneys Can Help
If you want to end your co-ownership relationship, but your co-owner won’t agree, a partition action is your only option. With eight, full time partition lawyers, Talkov Law is the #1 partition law firm in California and has handled over 470 partition actions throughout California. Every case has resulted in a sale to either a third party or one of the co-owners. Not a single court has denied our clients the right to partition or declared our client to be a non-owner. Plus, for qualified cases, there is no fee until we settle or win your case!
If you're looking to end your co-ownership dispute, contact California's premier partition action law firm by calling Talkov Law at (844) 4-TALKOV (825568) or sending us a message today.
