Jupiter Real Estate Attorney

Jupiter property owners tend to run into legal trouble in a few predictable ways: a closing that collapses days before the date, a co-owner who will not sell or buy out the others, a deed that does not match what the family believed, or a tenant who stops paying. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm that handles real estate transactions and disputes for clients in Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Broward County, and across South Florida.

Anyone searching for a Jupiter real estate attorney is usually not shopping for a title company substitute. They have a contract that someone is not honoring, a property that two or more people own and cannot agree on, or a cloud on title that blocks a sale or refinance. Those are litigation problems, and they run on different clocks and different rules than a routine closing. The sections below walk through the ones that come up most and the deadlines that matter.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in real estate and business disputes throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County, including Jupiter and the neighboring communities along the coast. Andrew M. His career has centered on contract disputes, conflicts among co-owners, and the cases that follow when a deal or a partnership goes wrong. He holds a law degree from the University of Miami and an undergraduate degree from Emory University.

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 works as a true legal team, so everyone assigned to a file knows it, and clients get a return call within 24 hours even when a lawyer is in court. Our attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as trial, and we look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out.

Real estate trial work is where this firm has recent, concrete results. After a five-day bench trial, a Broward County circuit judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract, meaning the court ordered the sale to go forward rather than leaving the client with a damages check. That is the outcome many buyers actually want when a seller walks away from a deal on a property that cannot be replaced.

Many of our clients own Florida property while living in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. We handle the local court appearances and keep them informed so they are not flying down for every hearing. A significant part of our practice also comes from referrals by other attorneys, including lawyers outside Florida whose clients have property disputes here.

Real Estate Problems We Handle for Jupiter Owners and Investors

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: Buyers who lose a property when a seller backs out, and sellers stuck with a buyer who will not close, often have claims for specific performance or damages. Which remedy fits depends on the contract language, the deposit terms, and how each side behaved before the closing date.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree on what to do with a property, an owner can ask the court to divide it or order it sold and split the proceeds. This comes up among siblings who inherited a home, former business partners, unmarried couples, and investors who want out.
• Heirs Property: Property held by relatives as tenants in common, often passed down without a clear agreement, gets special protections in a partition case, including steps designed to give family members a chance to keep the property before a forced sale.
• Quiet Title Actions: When a recorded deed, lien, or competing ownership claim clouds your title, a suit to quiet title asks the court to determine who owns the property and to cancel the competing claim.
• Title Disputes Among Co-Owners and Former Partners: Sometimes the goal is the reverse: a client needs to be separated from title to a property tied to a failed venture or a former partner.
• Commercial and Residential Landlord-Tenant Matters: Nonpayment, lease breaches, and termination notices all follow strict statutory steps, and a defective notice can derail an otherwise strong case.
• Business Owners Who Hold Real Estate in an Entity: When the LLC or corporation that owns the property is itself deadlocked, the real estate dispute and the business divorce become one case.
• Emergency Injunctions: When a co-owner or manager is about to sell, encumber, or strip a property, a temporary injunction can hold things in place while the dispute is decided.

Deadlines and Next Moves When a Property Dispute Surfaces

Start by collecting paper before you collect opinions: the signed contract and every addendum, the deed, any recorded mortgage or lien, closing statements, emails and texts with the other side, and proof of what you paid and when. In real estate disputes the exact wording of the contract and the sequence of events usually decide the outcome, and documents get harder to find as relationships sour.

Then look at the clock. A claim founded on a written contract generally has five years under Florida’s limitations statute, while an oral or implied contract claim has four. An action to rescind a contract has four years, and a fraud claim has four years from discovery, capped at twelve overall. The one that catches buyers off guard is specific performance: an action seeking it carries a one-year period. If a seller has refused to close on a property you need, waiting to see whether they come around can cost you that remedy. Negligence claims, such as some professional malpractice claims, run two years for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023.

Title and possession carry their own rules. Adverse possession without color of title requires seven years of continuous possession under a claim of title exclusive of others, and the person claiming it must file a return with the property appraiser that includes a full legal description. Where possession rests on a recorded instrument, it must actually be recorded with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the property sits. These rules matter both to someone who has occupied a parcel for years and to an owner who has neglected a boundary or vacant lot.

Where the case is filed depends on the property and the amount in dispute. Jupiter is in Palm Beach County, so most local disputes belong to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, whose main courthouse is in West Palm Beach and which also has a north county courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens. Claims above the county court limit, and all partition and quiet title actions, which are equitable proceedings, are heard in circuit court. A quiet title complaint may be filed in any county where part of the land lies, so a parcel that crosses a county line, or a Broward property owned by a Jupiter resident, can end up in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, which has a complex business division for larger commercial cases. Federal court, the Southern District of Florida, sits in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale and comes into play in certain out-of-state or federal-question disputes.

Common mistakes are easy to avoid once you know them. Do not sign a new agreement, release, or “extension” from the other side before a lawyer has read it. Do not stop paying a mortgage or carrying costs on a property you are fighting over without understanding the consequences. And do not assume a verbal promise about a property is enforceable; the writing usually controls.

How Partition and Quiet Title Cases Actually Work in Florida

Partition is a creature of chancery. The complaint must describe the land, name every owner and where they live, and state what share each holds. If the court enters a judgment of partition, it appoints three commissioners to evaluate whether the property can be divided fairly. If they report that division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a public auction and distribute the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s interest. A court can allow a sale on credit for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid down unless everyone consents otherwise.

Heirs property changes this. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, and covers tenancy-in-common property where there is no binding agreement among the cotenants, at least one cotenant got title from a relative, and further conditions are met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. When the property qualifies, the court must follow the Act’s procedure, and a partition in kind cannot be ordered unless the commissioners considered the statutory factors and found that a division would prejudice the cotenants as a group. For a family that inherited a Jupiter home, that can be the difference between a forced auction and a fair buyout.

A quiet title action under chapter 65 asks the court to determine who holds title and to cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title held by someone who is not the rightful owner. The plaintiff must trace title back at least seven years before suit unless the court orders otherwise. Where the claim rests on a fraudulent attempted conveyance, Florida law provides for summary procedure and calendar priority, which can speed things along when a sale or refinance is waiting on the result.

When the real estate sits inside an LLC or corporation, judicial dissolution may enter the picture. For an LLC, a member can seek dissolution on grounds such as deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, or when it is not reasonably practicable to carry on activities under the operating agreement. A court may appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member. In a corporation, shareholders facing a dissolution petition can elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value, and if the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms.

Questions Jupiter Property Owners Ask Us

Do I need a lawyer for a routine Jupiter home closing?

Many routine closings run through a title company without litigation. Our practice is focused on transactions that have gone wrong or involve real exposure, and on disputes between owners, buyers, sellers, and landlords. If a deal is going sideways or the contract is unusual, a review before you sign can prevent a lawsuit later.

What can I do if a seller refuses to close on my contract?

Depending on the contract, you may be able to sue for specific performance, which asks the court to order the sale, or for damages. Specific performance has a one-year limitations period in Florida, so do not wait. We have obtained a final judgment awarding specific performance of a commercial real estate contract after a bench trial.

My co-owner won’t sell. Can I force a sale?

Often yes. A partition action lets a court divide the property or order it sold and split the proceeds. Which result is likely depends on the property, the ownership shares, and whether the Heirs Property Act applies.

We inherited a house as siblings and one wants out. Is a forced auction inevitable?

Not necessarily. If the property qualifies as heirs property, the court must follow special procedures that give the other family members a chance to buy out the seller before an auction, and a sale is not ordered unless a division in kind would prejudice the owners as a group.

What does a quiet title action accomplish?

It results in a court judgment determining who owns the property and removing competing claims, such as an invalid deed or a stale lien, so you can sell, refinance, or insure the property with clean title.

How long must I have occupied a property to claim it by adverse possession?

Florida requires seven years of actual, continuous possession under a claim of title, and the claimant must file a return with the property appraiser with a full legal description. Where the claim depends on a deed, the instrument must be recorded in the county where the property is located. These claims are fact-heavy and frequently contested.

Can a tenant be evicted for not paying rent, and how fast?

The landlord must first deliver a written demand for payment or possession. If the default continues for three days after delivery, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed legal holidays, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement. Accepting partial rent does not waive the right to terminate, but the landlord must follow one of the statutory options, such as a receipt stating the balance due or a new notice.

What notice does a landlord have to give for non-rent violations?

For a violation that can be cured, the notice must say the lease will be terminated if the problem is not corrected within seven days of delivery. For violations that cannot be cured, such as intentional destruction of property, the landlord may give a seven-day notice of intent to terminate without any cure period.

I live in New York or New Jersey and co-own Jupiter property. Can you handle it from afar?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with South Florida real estate interests. We handle the Florida court appearances and keep you informed so you do not need to travel for every hearing.

Is my dispute heard in county court or circuit court?

County court handles claims at law up to a set amount, and larger claims go to circuit court. Partition and quiet title actions are equitable matters heard in circuit court. For Jupiter, that means the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County unless the property or parties place the case elsewhere.

Can a court stop a co-owner from selling the property while we fight?

In urgent situations, a temporary injunction can freeze a sale, transfer, or encumbrance while the case is pending. Courts look at whether harm is imminent and cannot be repaired with money later, so documentation of the threat matters.

Do property disputes always end in trial?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or a structured buyout. We pursue whichever route best serves your goals and budget, and we prepare every case as if it may be tried.

Serving Jupiter Real Estate Clients Across Palm Beach and Broward Counties

We represent property owners from Jupiter and the neighboring communities of Tequesta, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Juno Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens, and throughout Palm Beach County, including North Palm Beach, Lake Park, Riviera Beach, West Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton. In Broward County we serve clients in Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Plantation, and surrounding communities.

Talk With a Jupiter Real Estate Lawyer About Your Property Dispute

If a closing has fallen apart, a co-owner is blocking a decision, or a title problem is holding up your property, call the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to discuss it. As a Jupiter real estate lawyer’s practice should, ours starts with the deadlines and the documents, so you know where you stand and what options are open. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.