Hollywood Real Estate Litigation Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents property owners, investors, landlords, and co-owners in Hollywood and throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County who are stuck in a dispute over land, a building, or a contract to buy or sell one. As a Hollywood real estate litigation attorney team, the firm handles failed closings, partition actions, title and quiet title disputes, commercial lease fights, and the emergency motions that keep a property from being sold, encumbered, or stripped while a case is pending.

Real estate cases are won or lost on paper and on timing. A closing that collapses on Friday can leave a buyer with a one-year clock to ask a court to force the sale. A co-owner who stops paying the mortgage can put everyone’s equity at risk within months. A cloud on title can freeze a refinance or a sale outright. The deadlines are short, the documents are unforgiving, and the property often cannot wait for a final judgment.

Hollywood sits in Broward County, so these cases are filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. The South Regional Courthouse in Hollywood hears Broward county civil matters, while larger circuit-level disputes are handled in the Seventeenth Circuit, which also runs a complex business division for large business and construction litigation.

The Deadlines That Decide Real Estate Cases

Florida’s limitation periods are not forgiving, and several of them are shorter than owners expect. A claim founded on a written instrument, such as a signed purchase contract, lease, or loan document, generally has a five-year window. A claim on an oral or implied agreement has four years. An action to rescind a contract also runs four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer limit of twelve years.

The shortest of these is the one that matters most in a failed closing: an action for specific performance, where you ask the court to compel the other side to complete the deal, carries a one-year period. A buyer or seller who waits to “see if things work out” can lose the remedy entirely.

Possession of land carries its own clock. Florida bars a suit to recover real property unless the plaintiff or a predecessor held possession within seven years before filing. Adverse possession claims, with or without color of title, also center on seven years of continuous possession. When someone has been using a lot, a strip of waterfront, or a neighboring parcel for years, that seven-year mark can turn a boundary quarrel into a title dispute.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Property Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, and the rest of Broward County, along with West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County. The firm represents business owners, investors, and families, including clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own property or hold a share of an investment in South Florida. We handle the local court appearances so out of state owners do not have to travel for every hearing.

Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. His career has centered on complex contract disputes and conflicts between co-owners, which is exactly where most real estate litigation comes from. Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts.

The firm’s results include a recent case where, after a five-day bench trial, a Broward County Circuit Court judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That kind of outcome depends on preparation: the contract language, the course of dealing between the parties, and a clean record of who did what and when.

The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone on a file knows it, and calls are returned within 24 hours when we are in court. Our attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as trial, and we look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake. Many of our matters also come to us as referrals from other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients have property disputes in Florida.

Types of Real Estate Disputes We Litigate

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: A buyer walks away, a seller refuses to close, financing falls apart, or a deposit is withheld. Remedies can include specific performance, damages, or return of the deposit, and the one-year period for specific performance makes early action essential.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree, Florida’s partition statutes let a court divide the property or order a sale and split the proceeds. Common in Hollywood among former business partners, siblings who inherited a home, unmarried couples, and investors who want out of a shared deal.
• Heirs Property Cases: Property held by relatives as tenants in common, often after a parent’s death, can fall under Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which changes how a court must handle a sale and favors keeping the property in the family where possible.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: A recorded deed, lien, or competing claim of ownership clouds your title. A quiet title action asks the court to determine who owns what and remove the cloud, and the plaintiff must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise.
• Commercial Lease and Landlord-Tenant Disputes: Unpaid rent, lease defaults, buildout disagreements, and holdovers on commercial and residential property. Residential nonpayment generally requires a three-day written demand, excluding weekends and court holidays, before a landlord may terminate.
• Misappropriated Funds in Property Ventures: A partner or manager diverts rental income, sale proceeds, or capital contributions from a shared real estate investment. Claims can include an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of the money.
• Injunctions Over Property and Assets: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop a sale, transfer, encumbrance, or removal of assets while the dispute is decided.
• Entity-Owned Real Estate Breakups: When the property sits inside an LLC or corporation and the owners are deadlocked, judicial dissolution and court-supervised remedies may be the only way out.

What to Do When a Property Dispute Is Underway

Start by pulling every document tied to the property: the contract, any addenda, the deed, the closing statement, the lease, the mortgage or loan papers, and all emails and texts with the other side. In real estate cases, the exact wording of the paperwork often controls the outcome, and informal messages can matter as much as the signed agreement.

Next, identify the deadline that governs your claim. If a deal fell through, count from the date of breach and treat the one-year specific performance window as the controlling clock. If you are a landlord, follow the statutory notice steps exactly. For nonpayment, the demand for rent or possession starts a three-day period that excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed holidays. For other lease violations that can be cured, the notice must give the tenant seven days to fix the problem. A defective notice can force you to start over, and accepting partial rent after serving a notice requires care: you need a proper receipt, a registry deposit, or a fresh notice so you do not undercut your case.

If assets or property are at risk right now, say so immediately. Funds being moved, a sale being arranged, or a co-owner stripping a building are situations where we may seek emergency injunctive relief rather than wait for a trial date.

Do not record documents, change locks, or negotiate side deals with the other party without advice. Co-owners in particular make avoidable mistakes by taking unilateral action that later gets cited against them. A short conversation early, before positions harden, usually saves money.

On the court side, Hollywood cases belong to Broward County. Smaller claims go to county court, which handles disputes from the small claims ceiling up to the county court limit, while larger disputes go to circuit court. Complex business and construction matters can be directly filed into the Seventeenth Circuit’s complex business division through the procedure set by its administrative order. Some disputes involving diverse parties or federal questions belong in the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Choosing the right forum is part of the strategy.

Partition in Florida: How a Court Splits Shared Property

Partition actions are heard in chancery, meaning the judge sits in equity and has wide latitude. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners and where they live, state what share each holds, and include whatever else the court needs to sort out the parties’ rights.

If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree on them. If the commissioners report that the land cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order a public sale to the highest bidder and divide the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s interest. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid down unless everyone consents otherwise.

Heirs property gets different treatment. When property is held in common, at least one co-owner acquired title from a relative, and a statutory condition applies, such as twenty percent or more of the interests being held by relatives, the court must proceed under the heirs property act unless every co-owner agrees otherwise. Partition in kind is only entered when the court is satisfied the commissioners weighed the statutory factors and found that a division would prejudice the co-owners as a group. The practical effect is that forced sales of inherited family property face more procedural protection than they once did.

When Co-Owners Hold Property Through an LLC or Corporation

Many South Florida real estate investments sit inside an entity, which means the dispute is also a business divorce. For LLCs, Florida law lets a court dissolve the company on a member’s or manager’s petition when it is no longer reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement, when controlling members are acting illegally or fraudulently, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened. The court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member.

Corporations have a parallel framework. Courts can dissolve a corporation or order other remedies, and the corporation or the other shareholders may elect to purchase the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms, and an election to purchase is generally irrevocable. If the operating or shareholder agreement has a deadlock sale mechanism, initiating it can change which path the case takes, so the agreement itself should be reviewed before anyone files.

Questions About Hollywood Real Estate Litigation

What is real estate litigation?

It is any lawsuit or court proceeding over land, buildings, or interests in them. That includes failed sales, title and boundary disputes, partition, landlord-tenant conflicts, lease defaults, and disputes between co-owners or investors.

How long do I have to sue over a breached real estate contract in Florida?

A claim founded on a written contract generally has five years. An oral or implied contract claim has four years. But if what you want is an order forcing the other side to complete the sale, specific performance carries a one-year period, so that claim should be treated as urgent.

Can a court force someone to complete a real estate sale?

Yes. Because land is treated as unique, Florida courts can order specific performance of a purchase contract. A Broward County circuit judge did exactly that for one of our clients on a commercial property after a five-day bench trial.

Can I force the sale of a property I co-own?

Often yes. A co-owner can file a partition action asking the court to divide the property or order it sold and split the proceeds. If the property qualifies as heirs property, a different statutory process applies, with added protections for the family.

What is a quiet title action?

It is a lawsuit that asks the court to decide who owns a property and to cancel or remove competing claims, such as a bad deed or recorded cloud on title. It can be filed in any county where part of the land sits, and the plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years.

How does adverse possession work in Florida?

The claimant must show actual, continuous possession for seven years under a claim of title exclusive of others. If there is no color of title, the claimant must also file a return with a full legal description of the area claimed. When color of title is involved, the instrument has to be recorded with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the land sits.

My business partner is also my co-owner on the building. Which dispute is it?

Often both. The ownership of the property may be governed by the deed or an entity’s operating agreement, while the partnership relationship is governed by the business agreement. We look at both together, because the remedies, deadlines, and strategy depend on how title is actually held.

Can a landlord evict immediately for nonpayment in Florida?

No. For residential nonpayment, the landlord must deliver a written demand, and if the default continues for three days after delivery, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed holidays, the landlord may terminate. Taking partial rent does not by itself waive the right to proceed, but how the partial payment is handled matters.

I live in New York or New Jersey. Do I need to come to Florida for hearings?

Generally not for every proceeding. We handle local court appearances, keep you informed at each stage, and schedule calls at times that work for you, so you can protect a Hollywood or South Florida property without making repeated trips.

Is a co-owner allowed to sell or mortgage the property without me?

That depends on how title is held and what the governing agreements say. A co-owner typically can only transfer their own interest, but a fraudulent or unauthorized conveyance can cloud your title, and a court can be asked to cancel it and, when needed, to enjoin further action while the case is pending.

Is it worth litigating a smaller property dispute?

Sometimes the better answer is mediation or negotiated resolution. Our attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration and weigh the value of the property against the cost of a fight. If a quick negotiated outcome serves your goals, we pursue it; if the other side will not move, we are prepared to litigate.

Which court will hear my case?

Hollywood is in Broward County, so state cases go to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, with smaller disputes in county court and larger ones in circuit court. Large business and construction disputes can be directed to the complex business division. Federal cases belong in the Southern District of Florida.

Real Estate Litigation Representation Across Hollywood and South Florida

We represent property owners from Hollywood’s downtown and beachfront, through Hollywood Hills and Emerald Hills, and into the neighboring communities of Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, and Davie. Our reach extends across Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, Sunrise, Tamarac, Lauderhill, Oakland Park, Wilton Manors, and Deerfield Beach.

To the north, we serve clients throughout Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Wellington, and Palm Beach Gardens. Whether the property is a single-family home, a retail center, a warehouse, or a share in a multi-owner investment, we handle the disputes that arise across South Florida, along with clients in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold real estate or business interests here.

Talk With a Hollywood Real Estate Litigation Lawyer Today

If you are in a dispute over a property, a purchase contract, or a co-owner who is putting your investment at risk, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review the documents, tell you which deadline governs, and lay out the options. As a Hollywood real estate litigation lawyer team, we look for the path that protects your property and fits your budget, whether that means negotiation, mediation, or a trial.

Call the firm to schedule a consultation. The sooner we see the paperwork, the more options you will have.