California Partition Law Blog

What is a Partition Action? A partition action is a court-ordered process where a property owner forces a sale of jointly owned real estate. Essentially, a partition action exists to allow people who own real estate together to take their share of the equity and go their separate ways. But, as simple as this...

The deed to a property is the most important document a property owner has. It describes the title and its associated rights while operating as the grant of the property itself. But not all deeds are created equal. While grant deeds and quitclaim deeds are the most common tools for transferring title, they carry...

Co-owning property as tenants in common is the favored form of joint ownership in California. (Wilson v. S.L. Rey, Inc. (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 234, 242 (S.L. Rey).) Yet, property held in tenancy in common brings with it a unique set of potential issues that are not present in the other forms of joint ownership...

Yes. While joint ventures are a distinct type of business entity, they share many similarities with general partnerships in California. In fact, “the resemblance between a partnership and joint venture is so close that the rights as between adventurers are governed by practically the same rules that govern partners.” (Milton Kauffman, Inc. v. Superior...

While litigation guarantees are recommended in a lot of contested real estate issues in court, it is not required in a partition action. Read on to find out more about the nuances of litigation guarantees and their relationship with partition actions. What is a partition action? A partition action or a partition lawsuit is...

Yes. In California, you have a right to recover attorney’s fees by statute. But that doesn’t mean that you can recover 100% of your fees, even in uncontested partitions. Courts will employ numerous equitable considerations in awarding costs, and the complexities of prolonged litigation may render some expenditures on your attorney unrecoverable. The focus...

In California, most real estate is held either as marital property, as a tenancy in partnership, as joint tenants, or as tenants-in-common. While holding titles as spouses or in a partnership is relatively straightforward, questions frequently arise as to the differences between “co-tenants” and “tenants-in-common.” This article will explore the difference between the second...

Yes. Partnership property is subject to partition on the dissolution, accounting, and wind-up of partnership matters, just like other types of property. As real estate presents unique issues, however, there are many important things to know about the process to ensure that it is done correctly. The purpose of this blog post is to...

Yes. A party may be able to receive credits and/or offsets for upgrading a property in a partition action under many circumstances. In a partition lawsuit, two parties disagree about what to do with the jointly-owned property. In those circumstances, one party can seek the sale of the property and then have the equity...

Shareholder derivative suits are lawsuits that allow and assist shareholders in bringing legal action against the board of directors or officers in a corporate entity for illegal action. Read on to find out about the relationship between shareholders and derivative suits. What is a shareholder? Shareholders are everyday individuals who have what is called...