A California partition action can resolve ownership, title disputes, reimbursements, rent, liens, fees, and the sale. Learn its scope, limits, and how the accounting affects your payout.
Agricultural land brings its own challenges in a partition action. Here is what co-owners of California farmland should know.
Yes. If your family or another co-owner won’t sell the cabin or beach house, or will only offer a low buyout, a California partition action can end the co-ownership through a court-supervised sale or a buyout at a court-set value.
Offsets for overpaid down payments, repairs, mortgage, and taxes are often the most contested issue in a partition. A referee’s report on offsets can resolve them faster and for less.
Code of Civil Procedure section 873.980 provides that the procedures for partition by appraisal are cumulative and do not replace other remedies.
A partition action is a lawsuit in which a California court ends the co-ownership of real property by dividing it or ordering it sold and dividing the proceeds. A co-owner generally can force a sale without the other co-owners’ consent.
Code of Civil Procedure section 873.060 gives the partition referee authority to perform any acts necessary to carry out the referee’s duties in a partition action.
Unlike most lawsuits, a California partition action has two phases. The interlocutory judgment ends the first phase by deciding the right to partition, before the sale and accounting.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.730 lets the court apply the partition statutes to partnerships when the court finds them a suitable remedy.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.540 lets a partition plaintiff leave out certain oil and gas interest holders when the property is subject to an oil or gas lease or pooling arrangement.
One of the most common co-ownership disputes is what happens when one co-owner paid more than their share of the down payment. Here is how a partition action handles it.
A partition by sale is a court-ordered sale of jointly owned property, with the proceeds divided among the co-owners. It is the most common outcome of a California partition.
A partition in kind physically divides the property so each co-owner receives a portion of the land. Here are the rules that decide when it is allowed.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.240 lets co-owners partition real property and personal property in one case, so a house, its furnishings, and a shared vehicle can be resolved together.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.410 lists what a defendant’s answer to a partition complaint must include, such as the defendant’s interest in the property and any denials.
How a co-owner who wants out wins a partition action in California: force the sale or a buyout, answer the defenses your co-owner will raise, maximize your offsets, and build your record from day one.
Code of Civil Procedure section 873.220 lets a partition in kind allot to a party the portion of the property that includes improvements that party made.
Code of Civil Procedure section 873.850 lets the partition action continue between the parties to decide how proceeds are allocated when that hasn’t yet been determined.
Code of Civil Procedure section 873.520 lets the court decide whether the property will be sold at public auction or by private sale.
California law provides three types of partition: partition by sale, partition in kind, and partition by appraisal. By far the most common is partition by sale.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.840 explains how property subject to an express trust can be divided or sold in a partition, and the trustee’s duties.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.830 allows a rare type of partition where part of the property is sold and the rest is divided in kind.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.810 requires the property to be divided according to the parties’ interests as set in the interlocutory judgment.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.820 allows the court to order a partition by sale when a sale would be more equitable than dividing the property.
Wallace v. Daley (1990) 220 Cal.App.3d 1028 may be the most cited case in California partition law. It holds that every partition includes an accounting of offsets.
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Practical guides from attorneys who focus exclusively on California partition actions.
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