California Partition Law Blog
It is an unfortunate fact that many marriages don’t make it out of the engagement stage. While this can be a difficult time for all involved, the situation can only become more dire when real property is involved.
Commonly, one owner of real property will add their partner to the house’s title shortly before the marriage occurs. Usually, they do this because they are under the impression that the marriage is about to happen. But when the partner calls the marriage off, the property owner is now faced with the problem of title. Under the law, the former partner is now an owner of the property.
In these instances, Civil Code section 1590 allows for the property owner to recover their title, although this will usually require filing a quiet title lawsuit. However, quiet title law can be difficult to understand, and in addition, litigants will need to take care not to blow the applicable statute of limitations.
Civil Code section 1542 provides, “
No, not unless they want to convert their own, singular interest into two or more shares. The reason for this is that grantors in 
In California, an unrecorded interest is valid between the parties thereto and those who have notice thereof. (Civ. Code § 1217.)
A right of first refusal is, essentially, an option contract. It is a contract or a condition in a contract between the owner of an asset, and some other person with an interest in that same asset, that allows the interested person to buy the asset from the owner instead of allowing the owner to sell it to a third party. Put differently, it’s a conditional right to acquire property, depending on the owner’s willingness to sell. (Campbell v. Alger (1999) 71 Cal.App.4th 200, 206.)
Under California’s Civil Code, real property refers to land, and things affixed to land such as houses. (Civ. Code § 658.) When people think of “property” they may envision a large lake house or a humble home. But this is only one type of property – real property. Personal property, on the other hand, is a broad term that encompasses property rights in basically everything else. A patent is property, and so are the apples that grow on trees in someone’s back yard, and so are the pipes and plumbing that run underneath someone’s house.
Proposition 19 is a new law in California that significantly affects the way property taxes are assessed on homes when deeded to heirs. While intra-family transfers were previously protected under Proposition 13, its effect has been significantly bludgeoned. On the other hand, Proposition 19 does include the added benefit of extra assessment transfers for residents over the age of 55.
Civil Code section 2924 states that “every transfer of an interest in property, other than in trust, made only as a security for the performance of another act, is to be deemed a mortgage.” The “other than in trust” portion of the statute refers only to express trusts, however, because “under a deed of trust the trustee obtains none of the incidents of ownership, other than the right to convey upon default.” (Blair v. Blair (1941) 44 Cal.App.2d 140, 146.)
An order determining succession to real property is an alternative petition to get a court order transferring the property. (Prob. Code § 13154.) If the estate is small enough, and a successor to the decedent has proof that they are entitled to a certain piece of property, then they may use this process to become a title owner.
A lis pendens is a notice that a lawsuit has been filed against real property which could affect that property’s title. The lis pendens notifies any potential buyer that there is a lawsuit involving a real property claim. This is important because a potential buyer with knowledge of the lis pendens will be bound by the court’s eventual judgment on the lawsuit.