Pembroke Pines Partition Action Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents co-owners, former business partners, heirs, and investors in Pembroke Pines and across Broward County and Palm Beach County who are stuck in shared ownership of real estate and need a court to resolve it. If you hold a Pembroke Pines partition action attorney on your shortlist, you are probably in one of two spots: you want out of a property you co-own and the other owners will not cooperate, or someone has filed against you and you need to know what a judge can actually do with the home or building.

Here is the core of it. Florida treats partition as an equitable remedy, which means every case in Chapter 64 is heard by the court sitting in chancery. A co-owner generally has the right to ask the court to end the co-ownership. The court can divide the land into separate pieces, or, when a fair division is not practical, order the property sold and split the money among the owners according to their shares. A condominium unit, a single-family home near Pines Boulevard, or a small commercial building cannot easily be cut in half, so sale is the outcome in many of these disputes. What matters is how you get there, who controls the process, and what you walk away with.

Partition is rarely just a property question. It usually grows out of a broken relationship: partners who dissolved a business but still hold the building, siblings who inherited a house together, or an unmarried couple who bought a home and separated. The earlier you understand your position, the more leverage you have, whether you are the one filing or the one defending.

How a Florida Partition Case Moves From Complaint to Closing

A partition case starts with a complaint that describes the land, identifies every owner and where each lives, and states the share each one holds. Leaving out an owner or misstating a share creates problems later, so this document has to be right the first time. Because partition lives in chancery, the judge decides the issues rather than a jury.

If the court finds the plaintiff is entitled to partition, it enters a judgment and appoints three commissioners to evaluate the property, unless the parties agree on who those commissioners should be. The commissioners report back on whether the land can be divided fairly. If they conclude it cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners and the court agrees, the judge may order a sale at public auction to the highest bidder, with the proceeds divided in proportion to each owner’s interest. The court can allow a sale on credit for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase money must be paid down unless every party consents otherwise.

That structure explains why settlement is so often the smarter path. Once the case reaches the commissioner and auction stage, the owners lose control over price and timing. A negotiated buyout, where one owner purchases the others’ shares at an agreed value, or a private sale on the open market, usually produces more money than a forced auction. Our attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and we look for the route that serves the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

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

The Andrew M. We serve clients in Pembroke Pines, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County. Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being 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 been built around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is exactly the background partition cases between former business associates demand.

Andrew is joined by Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in state and federal courts. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on your matter knows the file and can answer when you call. We keep a strict 24 hour return call policy, and we schedule conference calls at times that work for everyone involved.

On the real estate side, our recent record includes a 5-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court that ended in a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That is the kind of detailed, document-driven trial work that partition and title disputes can require when the owners cannot agree on facts. Many of our clients live outside Florida, including in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and we handle the local court appearances so they do not have to travel for every hearing. A significant part of our practice also comes from referrals by other attorneys, and we communicate with referring counsel throughout the matter.

Situations That Lead to Partition Actions in Broward County

• Former Business Partners Holding Real Estate: A company dissolves or a partnership falls apart, but the building, warehouse, or investment parcel is still titled in both names. One partner wants to cash out and the other wants to keep operating or simply refuses to sell.
• Inherited Homes and Heirs Property: When siblings or other relatives inherit a house as tenants in common, Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act can apply, including when 20 percent or more of the interests are held by cotenants who are relatives. In those cases the court must follow special protections before ordering a sale, and a partition in kind is entered only after commissioners weigh specific statutory factors and find that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group.
• Unmarried Couples Who Bought Together: With no divorce court to sort out the property, a couple who split up often has only partition to separate their shared ownership of a home or condo.
• Investor Groups With Different Exit Goals: Co-investors in a rental property or development parcel may disagree on when to sell, how to manage the asset, or who has been paying the carrying costs.
• Family Business Properties: Parents, children, in-laws, and spouses who share ownership of a family-run business property face the same questions about control and compensation, with relationships at stake alongside the money.
• Competing Ownership Claims and Clouded Title: Sometimes the first fight is over who actually owns what. A quiet title action lets a court cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title that clouds ownership, and the plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years before filing unless the court orders otherwise.
• Disputes Over Contributions and Credits: One owner paid the mortgage, taxes, insurance, or repairs while another paid nothing. Those payments and any rent collected can affect how sale proceeds are divided.

What to Do Right Now If You Co-Own Property and the Relationship Has Broken Down

Start by pulling the documents. You need the deed or deeds showing exactly how title is held, any co-ownership, partnership, operating, or shareholder agreement, the mortgage statements, and records of who has paid taxes, insurance, repairs, and improvements. If the property sits inside an LLC or corporation, you need the governing documents too, because the real question may be about the entity rather than the land. Many operating agreements contain buyout or deadlock provisions that change what is available to you, and a deadlock sale provision that is properly initiated can take the place of a court-ordered dissolution.

Next, stop doing things that hurt you. Do not change locks, collect rent without telling co-owners, stop paying the mortgage out of spite, or let taxes and insurance lapse. Those moves create counterclaims and can reduce your share. If money has gone missing or a co-owner is trying to sell or encumber the asset, tell us right away, because Florida courts can issue emergency injunctive relief to keep assets from being moved or spent while the case is pending.

Partition and title cases for property in Pembroke Pines are filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Circuit civil cases are handled at the Central Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale, and Broward also operates regional courthouses in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. If your property is in Palm Beach County, the case belongs in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in West Palm Beach. A quiet title complaint may be filed in any county where part of the land is located. Broward’s complex business divisions handle certain business-entity matters, including some dissolutions, and a case can be filed directly into one of them only through the procedure set out in the circuit’s administrative order.

Watch the clock on related claims. A contract claim founded on a written instrument carries a five-year limitations period, while oral or implied contract claims carry four years. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, capped at 12 years. A suit to recover real property generally requires that the plaintiff or a predecessor was in possession within the prior seven years. Whether any of these apply to your facts takes a close read of the history, so call before assuming you have time.

When the Property Is Tied to a Failing Business: Dissolution, Buyouts, and Partition Together

Many of the disputes we see in this area do not stay purely about land. If the property is held by a Florida LLC, a member can petition a circuit court for judicial dissolution on grounds that include deadlock between managers or members that cannot be broken with irreparable injury threatened or suffered, misappropriated or wasted assets, or that it is no longer reasonably practicable to carry on the company’s activities consistent with its articles and operating agreement. In those proceedings the court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest.

For corporations, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order directing the purchase. That election is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. The corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days after a dissolution proceeding begins that they may avoid dissolution by electing to buy. During the case, the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver, and take steps to preserve company assets.

Which route is best depends on what you want: out with cash, control of the property, or a clean wind-down. Sometimes the right answer is a partition action. Sometimes it is a buyout under the entity statutes. Often it is a negotiated structure that borrows from both. We evaluate all of them before recommending a filing.

Common Questions About Partition Actions in Pembroke Pines

Can one co-owner force the sale of a house or building in Florida?

A co-owner can ask the court for partition, and in most cases the right to seek it is strong. If the property cannot be divided fairly, the court may order a sale and split the proceeds by ownership share. An agreement among the owners that limits or waives partition can change that, as can special rules for heirs property.

How long does a partition case take?

It depends on whether the owners contest title, share percentages, or credits, and on the court’s calendar. An uncontested case moves much faster than one with disputed ownership or accounting claims. Agreeing to a buyout or private sale early usually saves months.

What is a partition in kind, and when does it happen?

Partition in kind means physically dividing the land among the owners. It works for larger parcels that can be split into usable lots. For a single home, condo, or small commercial building, it is rarely practical, which is why sale is common.

What happens at a court-ordered sale?

If the commissioners conclude the land cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order it sold at public auction to the highest bidder. Proceeds are divided in proportion to each owner’s interest. Sale on credit is possible for good cause, with at least one-third paid down unless all parties consent otherwise.

Do I have to give the other owners a chance to buy me out first?

Not automatically. But a buyout is often the best outcome, and an owner who wants to keep the property may be able to pay you fair value for your share. Your agreements, if any, may also contain a right of first refusal or buyout formula.

What if I paid the mortgage and taxes while my co-owner paid nothing?

Those payments can matter. Courts consider contributions, and an owner who carried the property may be entitled to account for them when proceeds are divided. Keep every receipt, statement, and bank record.

How does the heirs property law change things if we inherited from a relative?

If the property qualifies as heirs property, the court must handle partition under the special statute unless every cotenant agrees otherwise in a record. The statute adds protections, including a structured process before any sale is ordered, aimed at preventing forced sales of family property from shortchanging relatives.

My co-owner is a former business partner and I think money is missing. Can I raise that in the same case?

Often, yes, or in a companion action. Claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of diverted funds can run alongside a partition or entity dissolution case, and emergency relief can be sought if assets are at risk.

I live in New York or New Jersey and own a share of a Pembroke Pines property. Do I have to come to Florida?

Not for every hearing. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handle the local court appearances, and keep you informed at each stage.

Is partition the same as a quiet title action?

No. Partition ends co-ownership of land that is not in dispute as to who the owners are. A quiet title action resolves competing claims of ownership or removes a cloud on title. Some disputes need both, and the right sequence matters.

Can the dispute be resolved without a trial?

Often it can. Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration resolve many co-ownership fights, particularly when the owners recognize that a forced auction costs everyone money. We pursue the path most likely to reach your goals efficiently.

Serving Partition Clients Across Pembroke Pines and South Florida

We also work with owners in neighboring Broward communities such as Miramar, Hollywood, Davie, Cooper City, Weston, Southwest Ranches, Plantation, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Pembroke Park, and Hallandale Beach, as well as Fort Lauderdale.

Our work reaches north into Palm Beach County, where we assist clients in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and the surrounding communities. Whether the shared asset is a family home, a rental property, a commercial building, or an investment parcel, and whether the owners live next door or in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut, we handle the Florida proceedings from start to finish.

Talk to a Pembroke Pines Partition Lawyer About Your Co-Ownership Dispute

If you are weighing a filing, or you have just been served, the sooner we look at your deed, agreements, and payment history, the more options you will have. A Pembroke Pines partition lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can tell you whether a buyout, a negotiated sale, or a court-ordered partition fits your situation and what each is likely to cost and return. Call our team today to schedule a consultation.