Broward County Real Estate Attorney

Co-owners, buyers, sellers, landlords, and investors in Broward County often reach a point where the next move is a choice between negotiating, filing suit, or walking away, and each choice closes some doors. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles real estate transactions and litigation for clients across Broward County and Palm Beach County, and as a Broward County real estate attorney team, we help owners and investors decide which path fits their goals before the clock or the other side makes the decision for them.

Real estate disputes in this market tend to come from a handful of places: a failed commercial closing, a co-owned property that one owner wants to sell and another does not, a cloud on title that surfaced late, or a tenant relationship that has stopped working. Each of these has its own deadlines and its own leverage points, and the early decisions, such as what to put in writing, whether to seek emergency relief, and whether to sue at all, often shape the outcome more than anything that happens at trial.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Broward Real Estate Matters

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in business and real estate disputes throughout Broward County, Palm Beach County, and the rest of South Florida, including clients in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold property or business interests here. Andrew M. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts.

We keep a strict 24 hour return call policy when we are in court, and we look for the resolution that serves a client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case for its own sake. We are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, which matters in real estate cases where a negotiated exit is often worth more than a judgment.

The firm’s results include a commercial real estate case in Broward County Circuit Court. After a 5-day bench trial, the court issued a 32-page final judgment in May 2024 awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract, meaning the court ordered the deal to be carried out rather than leaving the client with a damages claim. That kind of outcome depends on precise contract analysis and a detailed record, which is how we prepare every case. A significant part of our practice also comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients need Florida counsel and Florida lawyers who do not handle business and real estate litigation.

Real Estate Disputes We Handle for Broward Owners and Investors

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: When a buyer or seller refuses to close, the questions are whether the contract can be enforced, whether damages are adequate, and whether a claim for specific performance is the better remedy. Commercial deals in Broward often turn on financing contingencies, inspection periods, and the exact wording of default and cure provisions.
• Partition Actions: Co-owners who cannot agree on a shared property can ask the court to divide it or order a sale and split the proceeds. These cases arise among former business partners, siblings who inherited property, unmarried couples, and investors who want out of a joint purchase.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: A recorded deed, lien, or competing ownership claim can stop a sale or refinance. A quiet title action asks the court to cancel the cloud and declare who holds title.
• Landlord and Tenant Disputes: Nonpayment, lease violations, and tenancies with no fixed term all follow notice-based procedures under Florida’s landlord-tenant statute, and a defective notice can force a landlord to start over.
• Commercial Lease Disputes: Rent obligations, personal guaranties, build-out responsibilities, and early termination clauses generate litigation between landlords and business tenants.
• Co-Owner and Partner Property Conflicts: When real estate is held inside an LLC or partnership, a business divorce and a property dispute become one case, with claims over distributions, management control, and the property itself.
• Injunctions Protecting Property: When property is about to be transferred, encumbered, or damaged, we pursue temporary and permanent injunctions, including early and emergency relief, to hold the status quo while the case proceeds.
• Adverse Possession Claims: Boundary and occupancy disputes sometimes involve a claim that someone has possessed land long enough to own it, which carries its own strict requirements.

What to Do and When When a Broward Property Dispute Turns Adversarial

The first decision is whether anything is about to become irreversible. If a co-owner or partner is moving to sell, mortgage, or strip value from a property, that calls for a conversation about emergency injunctive relief now, not after the closing date passes. If nothing is imminent, the better use of early time is assembling the documents that will decide the case: the purchase contract and every amendment, deeds, closing statements, the operating or partnership agreement if the property sits in an entity, leases, notices exchanged, and the email and text history showing what each side agreed to and when. Disputes over real estate often turn on the paper and on the parties’ course of dealing, so preserve everything and stop discussing the dispute in writing with the other side without advice.

Deadlines deserve early attention because they vary by claim. Florida gives five years to sue on a written contract, but only four years for an oral or implied contract and four years to seek rescission. A suit for specific performance of a contract has a one-year period, which surprises owners who assume they have the full five years, and it is a reason not to wait on a failed closing. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of 12 years. A professional malpractice claim, such as one against a closing professional, runs two years from when it was or should have been discovered, and negligence claims now carry a two-year period for causes of action that accrued after March 24, 2023.

Landlords face a different clock. For unpaid rent, the landlord delivers a written demand and the tenant has three days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed legal holidays, to pay or vacate. For a curable lease violation the notice gives seven days to fix the problem, and for violations that cannot be cured, or that repeat within 12 months of a written warning, the landlord may serve a seven-day notice of termination with no cure period. A tenancy without a set term ends by written notice delivered in the statutory manner. Accepting partial rent after serving a nonpayment notice does not waive the landlord’s rights, but the landlord must then handle the partial payment correctly, by giving a dated receipt noting the balance, depositing the money in the court registry when filing, or serving a new notice for the reduced amount. Errors here are among the most common reasons possession cases stall.

Where the case is filed matters. Broward County’s state circuit court is the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, with the main civil division at the Central Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale and regional courthouses in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. Claims above the county court limit belong in circuit court, and county court handles smaller civil claims, with small claims below that. The Seventeenth Circuit also maintains complex business divisions for large commercial matters, including certain business dissolution cases, and a case can be filed directly into those divisions only by following the circuit’s administrative order. Real estate disputes that include federal questions or diversity between out of state and Florida parties may belong in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale. Because our out of state clients often hold Broward property, we handle the local appearances so they do not need to travel for every hearing.

Partition and Quiet Title in Broward: How These Cases Actually Work

A partition action is filed in the circuit court, which sits in equity for these cases. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners and their places of residence, and state each owner’s share. If the court finds partition is proper, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree on them, to determine whether the property can be physically divided. For a single condominium unit, a house, or a commercial building, division in kind is rarely practical, and when the commissioners report that division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a sale at public auction with proceeds divided according to ownership interests. The court may allow a sale on credit for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase price must be paid at the outset unless everyone consents otherwise.

Family-held property is treated differently. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, and it covers tenancy-in-common property with no binding partition agreement where a cotenant acquired title from a relative and further conditions are met, such as 20 percent or more of the interests being held by relatives. If a property qualifies, the court must follow the heirs property procedures unless all cotenants agree otherwise, and a partition in kind cannot be entered unless the commissioners considered the statutory factors and found that division would prejudice the cotenants as a group. These rules give family co-owners protections they would not have in an ordinary partition, so identifying whether the Act applies is one of the first questions we ask.

Quiet title cases serve a different purpose: clearing a cloud rather than dividing ownership. Under chapter 65, the court can determine competing claims to land and cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title held by someone who is not the rightful owner. The suit may be filed in any county where part of the land lies, and the plaintiff must trace title for at least seven years before filing unless the court orders otherwise. When the claim rests on an allegedly fraudulent attempted conveyance, the statute provides for summary procedure and calendar priority. Adverse possession, which sometimes sits behind a quiet title case, requires actual, continuous possession for seven years under a claim of title exclusive of others; without color of title, the claimant must also file a return with the property appraiser that includes a complete legal description, and with color of title, the instrument must have been recorded in the county where the property sits.

When the property is held through an entity, partition may be the wrong tool. An LLC member may instead seek judicial dissolution if the company’s affairs cannot reasonably be carried on under its operating agreement, if managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened, or if assets are being misappropriated or wasted. The court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. Corporate shareholders have parallel remedies, including a fair-value buyout election that becomes final unless the court finds it equitable to modify it, and an operating or shareholder agreement with a deadlock sale provision may control the process. Choosing between partition, dissolution, and a negotiated buyout is the kind of decision that deserves analysis before the first pleading is drafted.

Questions Broward Real Estate Clients Ask

When should I hire a real estate attorney in Broward County?

Ideally before a dispute hardens. Contract problems are easiest to address while a cure period is still open, and a lawyer can often resolve a title or closing problem with a letter or negotiation before a lawsuit is needed. Once a co-owner, buyer, or tenant has already taken a position in writing, early advice matters even more.

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

Five years for a claim founded on a written contract, and four years for an oral or implied one. A suit to compel the other party to carry out the contract, known as specific performance, has a shorter one-year period, so a failed closing should not be left alone.

What is the difference between partition and a quiet title action?

Partition divides or sells property among co-owners who each have a valid interest. Quiet title resolves who owns the property or removes a competing claim or cloud. They sometimes appear in the same dispute, but they answer different questions.

Can one co-owner force the sale of a property in Florida?

Generally, yes. A co-owner can ask the court for partition, and if the property cannot fairly be divided the court may order it sold and the proceeds distributed according to ownership shares. Heirs property has additional protections, so how the owners acquired title matters.

What is heirs property, and why does it change the process?

It is property held as tenants in common, with no partition agreement, where at least one cotenant took title from a relative and further statutory conditions are met. A qualifying property is handled under a separate set of procedures designed to make forced sales harder and to protect family co-owners.

How does a landlord properly terminate a tenancy for nonpayment?

The landlord delivers a written demand for payment or possession, and the tenant has three days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed holidays, to pay or leave. If rent is not paid, the landlord may terminate and file for possession. A defective notice can derail the case.

If I accept partial rent after serving a notice, do I lose the right to evict?

No, accepting partial rent does not waive the right to terminate or sue. The landlord does need to handle it correctly, either by giving a dated receipt that states the balance due, placing the payment in the court registry when filing, or serving a new notice reflecting the lower amount.

Can a court stop a sale of property while we litigate?

Yes. A court can issue temporary or permanent injunctions, including emergency relief, to preserve a property or prevent a transfer while the case is pending. Courts expect prompt action, and delay can undermine a request.

Which Broward court will hear my real estate dispute?

Most are filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, with smaller claims in the county civil division. Large commercial matters may be eligible for the circuit’s complex business divisions, and some cases belong in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Lauderdale.

I live out of state but co-own Broward property. Do I have to travel for every hearing?

Usually not. We handle the local court appearances and proceedings for clients in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and elsewhere, and keep them informed at each stage, including through scheduled conference calls.

Does every real estate dispute end up in trial?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and a negotiated buyout or sale often serves co-owners better than litigating to judgment. We pursue the route most likely to meet the client’s goals and budget.

Can you work with my current attorney on a Florida property matter?

Yes. A significant part of our practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, and we communicate with referring counsel throughout and respect their relationship with the client.

Serving Real Estate Clients Across Broward County and Beyond

Our work for Broward County property owners spans the county from the coast to the western communities. We represent clients in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Weston, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, Lauderhill, Tamarac, Margate, Coconut Creek, Oakland Park, and Wilton Manors, along with the other communities of Broward. Cases from these areas are typically heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and our attorneys regularly appear in Broward County courts.

The firm also serves clients across Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, and the surrounding communities, as well as throughout South Florida. Many of our Broward clients live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut and own investment property, a business location, or a share of family real estate here, and we are set up to represent them without requiring them to travel for each proceeding.

Speak With a Broward County Real Estate Lawyer About Your Dispute

When a closing has fallen through, a co-owner will not agree on a sale, or a claim on your title is blocking a transaction, the right first move depends on facts and deadlines that are specific to your property. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your documents, explain the options under Florida law, and recommend whether to negotiate, mediate, or file. If you are looking for a Broward County real estate lawyer who will give you a direct assessment, call our team to schedule a consultation.