Coconut Creek Partition Action Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents co-owners of real estate in Coconut Creek and across Broward County and Palm Beach County: siblings who inherited a house, former business partners holding the same parcel, unmarried couples who bought together, and investors who want out of a shared deal. Our business and real estate litigation practice is built around exactly these standoffs, and a Coconut Creek partition action attorney is often the only practical way to break one when owners cannot agree.

A partition case is not a negotiation tactic that sits in a drawer. Once one co-owner files, the court has the power to carve up the property or order it sold, and the other owners do not get a veto. That is the point of the remedy. Florida treats the right to seek partition as close to automatic for co-owners, which means the real fight is usually about how the property is divided, who gets credit for what, and what the property is worth.

It also helps to know what partition is not. It is not a quiet title action, which resolves who owns a property or removes a competing claim. It is not a business dissolution, which unwinds a company. And it is not an eviction. Many Coconut Creek disputes involve more than one of these at once, and sorting out which claims belong in the case is the first piece of work.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a South Florida business and real estate litigation firm serving clients in Coconut Creek, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County. The firm helps business owners, investors, and families who share title to property and can no longer agree on what to do with it, including clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold South Florida real estate.

Andrew M. Schwartz, Founder, 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 centered on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is where many partition cases begin. Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, is a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts.

Clients tell us what they want is a lawyer who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on your file knows it, and we keep a strict 24 hour return call policy. Our attorneys handle mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and we look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget. In November 2024 the firm announced a 32-page final judgment from the Broward County Circuit Court awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract after a 5-day bench trial. That is the kind of record-intensive, property-focused trial work partition cases can demand when valuation or credits are contested.

Situations That Lead to Partition Cases in Coconut Creek

• Inherited Homes Among Siblings: One heir wants to sell, another lives in the house, a third wants a buyout. If the property qualifies as heirs property under Florida’s uniform act, additional protections apply, including a buyout opportunity for the other cotenants before a forced sale.
• Former Business Partners Holding Real Estate: A company dissolves or partners split, but the building or land stays titled in both names. The partition claim often runs alongside claims for an accounting or breach of an operating agreement.
• Unmarried Couples Who Bought Together: With no divorce court to divide assets, a breakup leaves two names on one deed. Partition is frequently the only route, and disputes over who paid the down payment, mortgage, and repairs drive the outcome.
• Investor Co-Ownership: Groups that bought rental or commercial property together sometimes disagree about holding versus selling. A co-owner who wants out can seek partition unless a valid agreement restricts that right.
• Co-Owners Who Stopped Paying Their Share: When one owner carries the taxes, insurance, and mortgage alone, the court can account for those contributions in dividing proceeds.
• One Owner in Possession, Others Shut Out: A co-owner living in or renting out the property while excluding the rest raises claims for rent and use that get sorted out within the partition case.
• Title Clouds Behind the Partition: Unclear deeds, old liens, or competing ownership claims sometimes have to be resolved through a quiet title action before or alongside the partition.

What to Do Before and After a Partition Dispute Starts

Start with the paper. Pull the deed, any recorded agreements, the closing statement, mortgage records, and the property tax and insurance history. Co-ownership agreements, LLC operating agreements, and trust or estate documents can change what you are allowed to do, because a binding agreement among the owners may limit or reshape the right to partition. If the property sits inside an LLC or corporation, you may be dealing with a company dispute rather than a true co-ownership case, and the remedy changes accordingly.

Keep a running record of every dollar you have put into the property: mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, repairs, and improvements, along with what other owners did or did not contribute. Courts weigh those contributions when dividing sale proceeds, and the person with receipts usually does better than the person with memories. Do the same with any rent collected or any period when someone was kept out.

Avoid the common mistakes. Do not change locks, strip the property, or let taxes lapse out of frustration; those moves hand the other side arguments. Do not sign a quitclaim deed or a “temporary” agreement without having it reviewed. And do not assume you can wait the dispute out; delay can leave you carrying costs for a property you do not control.

Coconut Creek is in Broward County, so a partition case here belongs in the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, and Florida requires partition actions to be heard in the equity side of the court. The complaint has to describe the land, identify the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. The Seventeenth Circuit also has a complex business division, which can come into play when a partition is tangled up with a company dissolution or other business claims. If the property is in Palm Beach County, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit handles the case instead.

If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by agreement of the parties or by the court, to evaluate whether the property can be divided fairly. A house or condominium usually cannot, and in that case the court may order a sale at public auction with the proceeds divided in proportion to each owner’s interest. Sales on credit are possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid at the outset unless everyone agrees otherwise. Because a forced auction often brings less than a negotiated sale, many cases settle through a buyout, an agreed listing, or mediation before that point.

Partition in Kind, Forced Sale, and the Heirs Property Rules

Florida law favors dividing land physically when that can be done fairly. For a vacant tract or a multi-lot parcel, partition in kind may make sense. For a single-family home, it almost never does, which is why most residential partition cases end in a sale. The court’s commissioners decide whether division would prejudice the owners, and their findings carry real weight.

Inherited 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 property held as tenants in common with no binding agreement among the cotenants on partition, where at least one cotenant got title from a relative and a further condition is met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. When the act applies, the court must follow its procedures unless all cotenants agree otherwise in a record. In practice that means cotenants get a chance to buy out the one who wants to force a sale, and the court must weigh factors beyond the highest auction price before ordering a sale rather than a division. For families in Coconut Creek who inherited a home, this can be the difference between keeping the property and losing it at auction.

When Partition Overlaps With Company Disputes and Title Claims

Many partition cases we see are really business divorces with a deed attached. If the co-owners are also LLC members, Florida’s LLC statute lets a court dissolve the company on grounds that include deadlock that threatens irreparable injury, misappropriated or wasted assets, or conduct that makes it not reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement. Courts can also appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. If an operating agreement has a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court finds grounds for dissolution, that provision can take the place of a court-ordered dissolution or buyout.

Title problems are a separate track. A quiet title action under Chapter 65 lets a court decide competing ownership claims and cancel a conveyance that clouds title. A plaintiff generally has to trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise, and the suit can be filed in any county where part of the land lies. Adverse possession arguments, which require seven years of continuous possession and, in many cases, specific filings, sometimes surface when one family member has lived on a property for decades. We evaluate those claims early because they can reshape who is actually a co-owner.

Partition Action Questions We Hear From Coconut Creek Owners

Can one co-owner force the sale of a property the others want to keep?

Generally, yes. Any co-owner may ask the court for partition, and the others cannot simply refuse. Their leverage comes from the process: buyout offers, claims for credits, and in inherited property cases, the protections of the heirs property act.

How does a partition action work in Florida?

One owner files a complaint in circuit court describing the land, the owners, and each owner’s share. After the court rules the owners are entitled to partition, commissioners are appointed to decide whether the property can be divided fairly. If not, the court may order a sale and divide the money according to each owner’s interest.

Will the property be sold at auction?

Possibly, but not always. A court can order a public auction when division is not practical, yet many cases resolve earlier through a buyout, an agreed sale on the open market, or mediation, which often produces a better price than a forced sale.

What if I paid most of the mortgage, taxes, and repairs?

Those contributions can be accounted for when proceeds are divided. Keep bank records, receipts, and tax and insurance statements. The other side may counter with claims for rent or for your exclusive use of the property.

Does the heirs property act apply to my family’s house?

It may. The property must be held as tenants in common with no binding partition agreement, at least one owner must have received title from a relative, and another condition must apply, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. If it applies, you gain buyout and valuation protections before any forced sale.

I live in New York or New Jersey. Can I handle this without moving to Florida?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handle the local court appearances, and keep you informed at each stage so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

My co-owner stopped paying the mortgage. What can I do?

Keep paying to protect the property and your credit, document every payment, and speak with counsel before acting further. Those payments may support a claim for credit against the other owner’s share, and in some cases supports asking the court for emergency relief to preserve the property.

Can a partition action be stopped or delayed by an agreement among the owners?

A binding agreement may limit or waive the right to partition, and it can also set a buyout formula. Whether it is enforceable depends on its language, so we review the deed, any co-ownership agreement, and any trust or company documents first.

How long does a partition case take in Broward County?

It depends on whether the other owners contest the case and whether valuation, credits, or title issues are in dispute. Uncontested cases move much faster than ones with competing claims, and settlement through mediation can shorten the timeline significantly.

Is partition the same as a quiet title action?

No. Partition divides or sells property among people who all agree they are owners. A quiet title action decides who the owners are or removes a competing claim. Some disputes need both, and we often bring them together or in sequence.

Do I need a lawyer if the property is held in an LLC with my partner?

Often, yes. When title is held by a company, the dispute may be governed by the operating agreement and the LLC statute rather than partition law, and the remedy could be dissolution, a buyout, or a deadlock sale provision instead of a partition suit.

Serving Coconut Creek and Surrounding South Florida Communities

We represent co-owners in Coconut Creek and the neighboring Broward County communities of Margate, Coral Springs, Parkland, Tamarac, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Lauderhill, Sunrise, Plantation, and Fort Lauderdale. Our work extends north and east into Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Lake Worth, Wellington, and West Palm Beach.

Many of our partition clients do not live in the area at all. Heirs and investors from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut come to us when a South Florida home, rental, or commercial parcel is stuck between owners, and we handle the proceedings here while keeping them informed from a distance. Other cases reach us through referrals from attorneys outside Florida or from Florida lawyers who do not handle business and real estate litigation.

Talk With a Coconut Creek Partition Attorney Before the Dispute Hardens

Whether you want to force a sale, keep the property, or simply get out on fair terms, the first conversation should be with a Coconut Creek partition lawyer who can read the deed, the agreements, and the numbers and tell you what is realistic. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team will review your situation, explain the options under Florida law, and recommend the path that fits your goals and budget.

Call us to schedule a consultation. We return calls within 24 hours, and we can arrange conference calls at times that work for you, wherever you are.