Hollywood Partition Action Attorney

Co-owning a Hollywood property with someone who wants out, or who refuses to let you out, can freeze the asset for years: nobody can refinance, nobody agrees on a sale price, and one owner may be collecting rent or living in the home while the other pays the carrying costs. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for clients in Hollywood, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and throughout South Florida, and a Hollywood partition action attorney is often the first call when joint ownership has stopped working.

A partition action asks a court to end co-ownership. Florida law lets any co-owner request it, and the court can either divide the property between the owners or, when a physical division would leave everyone worse off, order the property sold and split the proceeds according to each owner’s share. Most Hollywood residential lots, condominium units, and small commercial buildings cannot be sensibly cut into pieces, so sale is the realistic outcome in many cases. The real fights tend to be over what happens before and around the sale: who gets credit for the mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, and repairs one owner covered, who owes the other for rent collected or exclusive use, and whether a signed agreement between the owners changes what a court would otherwise do.

Partition cases in this area arise from former business partners who bought an investment property through a deal that has since soured, siblings who inherited a family home, unmarried couples who bought together, and investors in a shared venture where one side wants to cash out. Each version carries its own pressure points, and the way a case is framed at the outset often decides how much leverage each owner has later.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for a Partition Dispute

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving clients in Hollywood and across Broward County and Palm Beach County, including Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Boca Raton. Andrew M. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. The firm represents business owners, investors, and families, and its work centers on exactly the situations that produce partition suits: business divorces, conflicts among partners and LLC members, contract disputes, and disagreements among co-owners of real estate.

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. That depth matters in partition work, because these cases frequently sit on top of other disputes, such as an operating agreement fight or a claim that a partner diverted money, and the strategy has to account for all of it at once. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on a matter knows the file, and it keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy if the attorneys are in court.

Real estate trial experience is part of the record as well. After a 5-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 is a different remedy than partition, but it reflects the same skill set: building a detailed factual record, tying it to the documents, and persuading a judge on property rights. The firm also has experience in mediation and arbitration, and it looks for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake. Many clients live out of state, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and the firm handles the local court appearances so they do not have to travel for every hearing. Referrals from other attorneys also make up a significant part of the practice.

Situations That Lead to Partition and Title Disputes in Hollywood

• Former Business Partners Holding Real Estate: A company or partnership buys a building or lot, the relationship ends, and title remains in both names. Partition may run alongside claims under an operating or partnership agreement, so the real estate and the business dispute need to be handled together.
• Inherited Property Among Siblings or Relatives: When heirs take title as tenants in common, one may want to sell while another wants to keep the home. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act can apply and adds protections, including a right for other cotenants to buy out the one seeking partition, so the classification of the property matters early.
• Unmarried Couples and Shared Investments: With no divorce court to sort out ownership, a partition suit is often the only way to end co-ownership of a home or rental after a breakup or a failed joint investment.
• Co-Owner Collecting Rent or Using the Property Exclusively: One owner who rents the unit or occupies it alone may owe the other an accounting. Claims for contribution to taxes, insurance, mortgage, and improvements are routinely raised in the same case.
• Disputes Over Who Actually Owns What Share: Informal agreements, unequal down payments, and handshake arrangements make percentages contested. A partition complaint must state each owner’s interest, so these disputes surface immediately.
• Quiet Title and Competing Ownership Claims: When someone holds a deed or claim that clouds your title, or you need to separate yourself from title to a property, a quiet title action can cancel the competing evidence of ownership and confirm who holds what.
• Commercial and Investment Property: Shared ownership of a Hollywood retail space, small office building, or rental property raises tenant, lease, and income issues that a court must account for while the case is pending.
• Emergency Situations: Where a co-owner is trying to transfer, encumber, or strip value from the property mid-dispute, temporary injunctive relief can freeze the status quo while the court decides.

What to Do If a Co-Owner Will Not Cooperate

Start by gathering the documents that define who owns what: the deed, any closing statement, the mortgage and payoff history, tax and insurance bills, and any written agreement among the owners, including an operating agreement if an entity holds title. Then build a simple ledger of who paid for what, because contribution and reimbursement claims in a partition case rise or fall on records. If there is rental income, collect leases and deposit records. If one owner has been locked out or has locked others out, document that in writing. Do not stop paying the mortgage or taxes out of frustration; a lapse can damage everyone’s position and may reduce what you recover.

Before filing, it is usually worth one serious attempt at a negotiated outcome, whether a buyout at an agreed value, a joint listing, or mediation. A written demand also creates a clear record. If talks fail, a partition case proceeds in the circuit court, because Florida places partition in chancery. For property in Hollywood, that means the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County, with civil matters handled through the Broward courthouse system, including the South Regional Courthouse in Hollywood for certain proceedings. Suit can be filed in a county where the land lies, so the location of the property controls venue. Broward’s circuit also maintains complex business divisions, which can be relevant when the property dispute is tied to the breakup of a company.

The complaint must describe the land, name each owner and where they live, and state the share each holds. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree, to evaluate whether the land can be divided fairly. If the commissioners conclude division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a public sale to the highest bidder and divide the proceeds by ownership share. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid at the outset unless everyone consents otherwise. For heirs property, the court cannot order a division in kind unless the commissioners have weighed the statutory factors and found that division would harm the cotenants as a group.

The most common mistakes are waiting while the other owner keeps collecting rent, assuming an informal understanding will be honored, and filing without checking whether an agreement among the owners requires mediation, a buyout process, or another step first. Another is overlooking a related business dispute and filing a partition case that leaves the underlying claims on the table. A conversation with a Hollywood real estate litigation attorney before filing can sort out which claims belong together.

Partition, Buyouts, and Entity Ownership: How the Pieces Fit

When title is held by an LLC or corporation rather than by individuals, a partition suit is usually the wrong tool, because the owners hold interests in the company, not in the real estate itself. The remedy lies in business law instead. For an LLC, Florida law allows a member to seek judicial dissolution on grounds such as deadlock that threatens irreparable injury, assets being misappropriated or wasted, or the impracticability of carrying on in line with the operating agreement. A court may appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order the purchase of the petitioning member’s interest. For a corporation, a shareholder may seek dissolution on specified grounds, and the corporation or other shareholders may elect to purchase the petitioner’s shares 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 on those terms. A deadlock sale provision in the governing agreement can also control the outcome if it is properly initiated.

This is why identifying how title is held comes first. A property in two individuals’ names, a property in a partnership, and a property in an LLC each call for a different path, and the wrong one wastes time and money. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team regularly handles both sides of this line, partition and title work for individual co-owners and dissolution, buyout, and fiduciary claims for partners and members, so the strategy fits the actual ownership structure.

Title Clouds, Quiet Title, and Time Limits

Some co-ownership disputes are really disputes about title. A quiet title action allows a person claiming legal or equitable title to ask the court to determine ownership and remove a competing claim, including cancelling a conveyance or other evidence of title held by someone who is not the rightful owner. The plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years before filing unless the court orders otherwise, and the suit may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. Where the dispute involves an allegedly fraudulent attempted conveyance, Florida provides a summary procedure that moves the case up on the court’s calendar.

Time also matters when one owner claims to have held the property exclusively. Adverse possession in Florida requires actual, continuous possession for seven years under a claim of title to the exclusion of others, with additional requirements depending on whether the claim rests on a recorded instrument. Florida law also bars suits to recover real property unless the claimant or a predecessor was in possession within seven years before filing. A co-owner who has been shut out of a property for a long stretch should not assume there is no deadline, and a co-owner who has long occupied a property alone should not assume that occupancy alone creates ownership. Contract-based claims tied to the property carry their own limits: five years for claims founded on a written instrument and four years for oral or implied agreements.

Questions About Partition Actions in Hollywood

What is a partition action?

It is a lawsuit that asks a court to end co-ownership of real property. The court can divide the property physically or, when that is not practical, order it sold and distribute the proceeds according to each owner’s interest.

Can one co-owner force a sale if the others refuse?

Generally yes. A co-owner has a right to seek partition, and the others cannot simply veto it. The result still depends on any agreement among the owners, how title is held, and whether the property qualifies as heirs property, which brings in additional protections.

Will the court divide the property or sell it?

The court appoints three commissioners who evaluate whether the property can be divided without prejudice to the owners. If it cannot, which is common with a single house, a condo unit, or a small commercial building, the court may order a public sale to the highest bidder.

How are the sale proceeds divided?

Proceeds are divided in proportion to each owner’s interest, after accounting for adjustments such as one owner’s payment of taxes, insurance, mortgage, and improvements, and any rent or use value owed to the others. Those adjustments are often where the real money is contested.

What if the property is an inherited family home?

Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act can apply when co-owners hold as tenants in common, at least one acquired title from a relative, and certain other conditions are met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. In those cases the court must follow special procedures, including steps that favor division in kind or a buyout over a forced auction.

Which court would hear a Hollywood partition case?

Partition actions are equitable matters heard in circuit court. For property in Hollywood, that is the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Venue follows the location of the land.

Can I stop a co-owner from selling or borrowing against the property while we fight?

Possibly. If a co-owner is moving, encumbering, or wasting the asset, a court can grant temporary injunctive relief to preserve the property while the dispute is pending. The firm handles early and emergency injunction requests of this kind.

What if our property is owned through an LLC or corporation?

Then partition is usually not the right remedy, because the owners hold interests in the entity rather than in the real estate. The path runs through the operating or shareholder agreement and, if necessary, judicial dissolution or a court-ordered buyout under Florida’s LLC and corporation statutes.

Can a co-owner claim the property by living in it alone for years?

Occupancy alone does not transfer ownership. Adverse possession requires seven years of actual, continuous possession under a claim of title that excludes others, along with specific statutory requirements. A co-owner who has been excluded should still act promptly rather than assume the clock does not matter.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer if we mostly agree and just need to sell?

Often yes, because agreement on the goal rarely covers who gets credit for past payments, how to price the property, or what happens if one owner changes course. A short negotiation or mediation, backed by a drafted agreement, can avoid a contested lawsuit and cost far less than litigating.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. Can you handle a Hollywood property dispute for me?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from those states who own business or real estate interests in South Florida, handles the local court appearances, and keeps clients informed so they do not need to travel for every hearing.

Do partition cases always go to trial?

No. Many resolve through a negotiated buyout, a agreed sale, or mediation. Some turn on contested accounting or ownership percentages and require a hearing or trial. The firm’s attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation.

Serving Co-Owners and Property Investors Across Hollywood and South Florida

The firm’s partition and real estate litigation work begins in Hollywood and extends through the surrounding Broward County communities. From the beachfront and Hollywood Boulevard corridor through neighborhoods such as Emerald Hills, Hollywood Lakes, and Driftwood, and into nearby Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Davie, and Pembroke Park, our attorneys represent owners of homes, condominium units, rental properties, and commercial real estate. We also serve clients in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Sunrise, Weston, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, and Lauderhill.

Our work continues north into Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens, and we regularly represent owners who live outside Florida, particularly in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but hold property or business interests here. Whether the dispute involves siblings who inherited a home, former partners who bought an investment together, or co-owners of a commercial building who can no longer agree, the firm brings the same attention to the title, the accounting, and the court process.

Talk With a Hollywood Partition Action Lawyer

If a co-owner is blocking a sale, collecting income that belongs to both of you, or claiming more of the property than the record supports, speaking with a Hollywood partition lawyer early can shape the whole case. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your deed, your agreements, and your payment history, explain whether partition, a buyout, a quiet title action, or an entity-level remedy fits your situation, and tell you plainly what a realistic outcome looks like. Call the firm to arrange a consultation and get the dispute moving toward a resolution.