Pembroke Pines Real Estate Litigation Attorney

A co-owner who stops paying the mortgage, a buyer who refuses to close, a title cloud that surfaces the week before a sale: real estate disputes in Pembroke Pines tend to arrive with a closing date or a carrying cost attached. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles real estate transactions and litigation for owners, investors, landlords, and families in Pembroke Pines and across Broward County and Palm Beach County, and our team works as a Pembroke Pines real estate litigation attorney on cases involving contracts, co-ownership, title, and commercial property.

Most real estate lawsuits are really disputes about a document: a purchase and sale contract, an operating agreement that holds title, a deed, a lease. Pembroke Pines sits in a market with a large base of single-family homes, planned communities, condominium and townhome associations, and commercial property along its major corridors. That mix produces disputes between heirs who share a house, former business partners who still share title, buyers and sellers who disagree about who defaulted, and tenants and landlords who dispute notice and possession. Each of these runs on different statutes and different deadlines, and the first decision, which claim to bring and in which court, shapes everything after it.

Cases from Pembroke Pines are filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Quiet title and partition cases are equitable proceedings, which means a judge, not a jury, decides how the property is divided, sold, or cleared. That changes how a case is prepared, because the court’s discretion over remedies is broad and the record you build on the facts matters more than rhetoric.

Real Estate Disputes We Litigate for Pembroke Pines Owners and Investors

• Purchase and Sale Contract Disputes: Failed closings, disputed deposits, financing and inspection contingencies, and claims that a buyer or seller defaulted. A buyer who wants the property itself, rather than damages, may seek specific performance, which carries a one-year limitations period under Florida law, much shorter than the period for an ordinary contract claim.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree to keep, sell, or buy out a property, a court can divide it or order a sale and split the proceeds. Under Chapter 64, the court appoints three commissioners to assess whether the property can fairly be divided, and a forced sale may be ordered by public auction if division would prejudice the owners.
• Heirs Property Cases: Property inherited by relatives as tenants in common is treated differently from ordinary co-ownership. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which covers actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, requires the court to weigh specific factors before any property is partitioned in kind, and gives co-owners protections against a forced sale.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: Competing deeds, forged or fraudulent conveyances, and stale claims that cloud ownership. A quiet title complaint lets a court cancel a competing claim of title, and the plaintiff must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise.
• Adverse Possession Claims: Florida generally requires seven years of continuous possession, with additional requirements depending on whether the claim is founded on a recorded instrument. These claims arise from boundary disputes, abandoned parcels, and informal family arrangements that were never papered.
• Business Partner and Member Disputes Over Real Property: Real estate held through an LLC or corporation often becomes the center of a business divorce. Deadlocked members, diverted rents, and disputes over capital contributions may involve claims for judicial dissolution, an accounting, or a court-ordered buyout.
• Commercial and Residential Landlord-Tenant Disputes: Lease defaults, nonpayment, holdovers, and disputes about notices. In residential cases, the statutory notice requirements, such as the three-day notice for unpaid rent (excluding weekends and court-observed holidays) and seven-day notices for curable violations, are frequently the deciding issue.
• Emergency Injunctions: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop a sale, a transfer, a lockout, or the dissipation of rents and proceeds while the underlying case is pending.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Pembroke Pines Real Estate Litigation

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Pembroke Pines, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and communities throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989 and has spent 37 years in litigation, with a career centered on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989. Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, is a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience handling business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts.

The firm keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court. Clients who live out of state, including those from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own property in South Florida, are kept informed at each stage while the firm handles local court appearances. A meaningful part of the practice also comes from referrals by other attorneys.

For real estate clients, the relevant proof is trial experience. In 2024, after a five-day bench trial, a Broward County Circuit Court judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That outcome reflects the kind of work these cases demand: careful reading of the contract, a detailed record of the parties’ dealings, and the ability to try the case to a judge. The firm also has experience in mediation and arbitration and looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake.

What to Do Now When a Property Dispute Is Underway

Start by gathering the documents that define the dispute: the contract or lease, the deed and any prior deeds, the operating or shareholder agreement if an entity owns the property, closing statements, and every written exchange with the other side, including texts and emails. In real estate cases, the paper usually decides the outcome, and the other side will be building the same file. Do not sign a deed, a release, or an amendment while the dispute is open without having it reviewed, because a signature given in frustration can end a claim.

Pay attention to deadlines before anything else. A claim on a written contract generally has a five-year limitations period in Florida, while an oral or implied contract claim has four years. A suit seeking specific performance must be brought within one year, a fraud claim runs four years from discovery with an outer limit of twelve years, and a claim to recover real property can be barred if neither the claimant nor a predecessor was in possession within seven years before filing. Negligence-based claims, including some professional malpractice claims tied to a transaction, carry a two-year period. Which clock applies depends on how the claim is pleaded, and a missed deadline cannot be repaired later.

If money or property is moving, act quickly. Where a co-owner is collecting rents without sharing them, a seller is trying to convey to a third party, or a partner is draining accounts tied to the property, the remedy is often an emergency injunction rather than waiting for a final judgment. A court will want specific facts showing what is being moved and why harm cannot wait.

On venue, disputes over Pembroke Pines property are filed in Broward County. Claims above the county court’s jurisdictional limit are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and smaller claims in county court; the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest, costs, and fees, determines which. Certain large business and construction disputes and some business entity dissolutions may qualify for the circuit’s complex business division, which is a separate filing path with its own form. Cases with federal jurisdiction can proceed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Clients often make the same mistakes: waiting while a co-owner makes changes to the property, negotiating informally without documenting terms, and assuming a lis pendens or a demand letter alone will stop a sale.

How Partition, Quiet Title, and Specific Performance Cases Actually Work

A partition case begins with a complaint that describes the land, names every owner and where each lives, and states each owner’s share. The court first decides whether partition is proper and in what form. If the property cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, as with a single house, the court may order a sale at public auction and distribute the proceeds in proportion to ownership. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase money must be paid down unless all parties agree otherwise. Where the property is heirs property, the process shifts: the court must follow the heirs-property statute unless all cotenants agree otherwise, gives co-owners a chance to buy out the petitioner, and may order partition in kind only after finding that it would not prejudice the cotenants as a group. A good deal of the work in these cases is valuation, accounting between co-owners for rents and carrying costs, and structuring a buyout so that a sale is unnecessary.

Quiet title cases are about removing a cloud. A plaintiff claiming legal or equitable title can ask the court to cancel a conveyance or another instrument held by someone with no rightful claim, and must trace title for at least seven years. The statute also provides a summary procedure for actions based on a fraudulent attempted conveyance, with the court advancing the case on its calendar. These cases often turn on the chain of recorded instruments and on what the other side can prove about possession and intent.

Where an entity owns the property, the dispute may become a dissolution case. Florida’s LLC statute lists grounds a member or manager can invoke, including deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, and conduct by controlling members that is illegal or fraudulent. The court may appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest. For corporations, shareholders can seek similar relief, and the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value, with a 60-day window to agree on price. An operating or shareholder agreement with a deadlock sale provision can displace these court-ordered remedies if the provision is invoked in time, so the agreement should be read before any filing.

Specific performance cases, like the one the firm tried to judgment in Broward County, ask the court to compel a sale rather than award money. The plaintiff generally has to show a valid contract, its own readiness to perform, and the other side’s breach, and must move within the one-year window. Real property is treated as unique, which is why the remedy is available, but the evidence about the parties’ conduct leading up to the failed closing is what the case turns on.

Pembroke Pines Real Estate Litigation Questions, Answered

What does a real estate litigation attorney actually do?

The work includes reviewing contracts, deeds, and entity documents to identify claims and defenses, sending demand letters, seeking emergency injunctive relief when assets or property are at risk, filing and litigating cases in circuit or county court, negotiating buyouts and settlements, and trying cases to a judge or jury when resolution fails.

How long do I have to sue over a broken real estate contract?

For a claim founded on a written contract, Florida allows five years. A claim on an oral or implied contract has four years, a rescission claim four years, and a suit seeking specific performance only one year. Because a single dispute can support several claims with different clocks, the earliest deadline controls your planning.

Can I force the sale of a house I co-own with a former partner or relative?

Generally, yes. Florida allows a co-owner to ask the court for partition. If the property cannot be divided fairly, the court can order it sold and the proceeds distributed according to ownership shares. The court may also account for expenses and rents between owners.

What is different about inherited property that several relatives own?

If the property qualifies as heirs property under Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, the court must apply a special process rather than ordinary partition rules, including protections against a forced sale and a chance for other co-owners to buy out the one seeking partition. The statute applies to actions filed on or after July 1, 2020.

What is a quiet title action, and when do I need one?

It is a lawsuit asking the court to declare who owns a property and to cancel competing claims or defective instruments. You may need one when a deed is disputed, a prior conveyance was fraudulent, or a competing claim prevents you from selling or financing the property.

Can a court stop a sale of property while the lawsuit is pending?

Yes. A court can issue temporary injunctive relief to preserve property, rents, or proceeds while the case is pending, if the facts show the harm cannot wait for a final judgment. These applications are fact-heavy and move quickly.

How long does a real estate lawsuit in Broward County typically take?

It depends on the case type, the court’s calendar, and whether the facts are contested. Simple title matters with no opposition can resolve quickly, while contested contract or partition cases with discovery, valuation experts, and a bench trial take considerably longer. Mediation can shorten the timeline when both sides are willing.

My business partner and I own property through an LLC. Can I still partition it?

Not usually. When an entity owns the property, the members do not own it directly, so the dispute is typically handled through claims about the entity: breach of the operating agreement, fiduciary duty, an accounting, a buyout, or judicial dissolution. The operating agreement’s buyout or deadlock provisions often shape the available options.

If a landlord accepts partial rent, does that end the eviction?

Not automatically. Under Florida’s landlord-tenant statute, accepting partial rent does not waive the landlord’s right to terminate, but the landlord must follow one of the prescribed steps, such as giving a receipt that states the amount and date and the balance due, depositing the partial rent in the court registry, or serving a new three-day notice reflecting the amount owed.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer for a property dispute with a family member?

Often it is, because informal arrangements between relatives leave little paper, and the legal rights of co-owners are rarely what family members assume. Early legal advice can lead to a negotiated buyout or a documented agreement, which usually costs far less than a contested partition case.

I live out of state. Can I handle a Pembroke Pines property dispute remotely?

Generally you can. Local counsel can handle court appearances and filings, and many hearings and conferences can be coordinated by scheduled calls. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with property and business interests in South Florida.

Serving Real Estate Litigation Clients Across Pembroke Pines and South Florida

Our work for Pembroke Pines property owners extends to neighboring Broward communities, including Miramar, Cooper City, Davie, Weston, Southwest Ranches, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Pembroke Park, West Park, Plantation, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Parkland, Margate, Coconut Creek, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Tamarac, Lauderhill, and Fort Lauderdale. Clients who own investment property or inherited homes in these areas often come to us when co-owners disagree about a sale, a lease, or a buyout.

The firm also represents clients in Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, and West Palm Beach. Many of our matters involve owners who live elsewhere, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, with real estate in Broward or Palm Beach County and a co-owner, partner, or tenant here.

Speak With a Pembroke Pines Real Estate Litigation Lawyer Before Deadlines or Closings Pass

If a closing has collapsed, a co-owner is blocking a sale, or a title claim is standing between you and your property, a conversation with a Pembroke Pines real estate litigation lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can clarify which claims are available, which deadlines apply, and whether an emergency filing is warranted. Call us to schedule a consultation. We return calls within 24 hours, and we will tell you plainly what the documents support and what the realistic paths forward look like.