Real estate conflicts can sometimes arise when there are co-owners of the same piece of property. In some cases, these co-owners deliberately purchased the property together, perhaps as an investment opportunity. In other cases, it could be that multiple beneficiaries all received ownership in the same property as part of their inheritance from a family member.
One specific conflict that this can create is when one of the co-owners wants to sell the property and the other does not. If they cannot come to a solution on their own and the case has to go to court, then the court has the option to use a partition action. There are two main ways that this can work as it divides the property.
Partition in kind vs. partition by sale
A partition in kind essentially divides the physical property itself. Instead of jointly owning the entire property together, the court finds a solution where each person independently owns fifty percent of that property. The person who wants to sell is then free to sell their share, while the other person can retain theirs.
A partition by sale may be used if there is realistically no way to split the property itself. Essentially, the property will be sold, but the partition by sale is used to divide the money fairly between both parties who had an ownership interest. This may be unsatisfactory to the party that wanted to keep the property, but they do at least get their financial value out of it.
These types of real estate disputes can be very complex, and it is important to work with an experienced law firm while looking into your legal options.