Articles Posted in real estate law

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 divided…

Yes. But it is a complex affair. Eminent Domain proceedings take on a unique structure with expert testimony as the backbone for the determination of fair market value. Neither side of the litigation has the burden of proof on this issue of just compensation, and unlike the traditional civil court case, the Defendant presents their…

Partition by a private sale is a method of selling jointly owned property, either by joint tenants or tenants in common, under the court’s supervision via a court order or a court-ordered referee. What is a partition lawsuit? A partition action or a partition lawsuit is when one co-owner, or when one person with interest…

Receivers and partitions referees are cut from the same cloth. In actions involving property, they step in at the request of the parties or order of the court to properly dispose of or manage the property at issue. Their roles are to act as a third party with no ties to any of the co-owners…

When there is a court-ordered partition by division, there are several steps that both the court and parties take to ensure that the property is physically divided both equally and equitably. Read on to find out the different avenues the court takes when deciding a partition by division lawsuit. How does the Court Account for…

While it is possible for a co-owner to lawfully adversely possess the other tenant’s interest in the property under California law, in practice, it is quite difficult and cumbersome. If you co-own or are a co-tenant of a shared piece of real estate property, possession is not enough for the court to determine that the…

Yes, a third party who has an interest in the property in question may “join” in a family law proceeding. In some specific cases, a third party must “join” the family law proceeding. California codified a third party’s ability to participate in a family law proceeding to assert their interest in real estate by creating…

While the brief answer is “yes,” the issue is a bit complicated, like many things in the real estate litigation world. Who is a proper party to a partition action? Generally, any person claiming an interest in a piece of real estate must be joined in the action in order to fully settle all issues…

Everyone agrees that there is a shortage of affordable housing in California. There are many possible solutions to this problem, one of the solutions was the Legislature’s passage of AB 1486. What is the purpose of the Surplus Land Act? Government Code section 54220 sets the stage for the other provisions of the Surplus Land…

The acquisition of private property for eminent domain usually proceeds on a long timeline. Before the government actually uses eminent domain to acquire private property, there is a substantial amount of planning. During the pre-condemnation period, which can stretch for years, a governmental entity often has the opportunity to make land use decisions about the…