Lantana Real Estate Litigation Attorney

A property dispute in Lantana rarely stays confined to the lot line or the lease. It spreads into the business that owns the building, the family that inherited the house, or the deal that was supposed to close in thirty days and did not. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for clients in Lantana, throughout Palm Beach County, and across Broward County and South Florida.

Whether you need a Lantana real estate litigation attorney to enforce a purchase contract, force the sale of jointly owned property, clear a cloud on your title, or stop someone from moving or encumbering a property while a case is pending, the legal tools are different for each problem and so are the deadlines. Florida sets short clocks on some of these claims, and a few of them are shorter than most owners expect. The right filing, in the right court, at the right time, often matters more than the strength of the underlying grievance.

Lantana’s mix of waterfront homes along the Intracoastal, small commercial buildings near Dixie Highway and Lantana Road, rental properties, and investor-owned parcels produces a steady range of disputes: co-owners who disagree about selling, contracts that collapse before closing, landlords and tenants who stop communicating, and old ownership questions that surface only when someone tries to sell.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm representing business owners, investors, and families in Palm Beach County, Broward County, and throughout South Florida, along with clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold property or business interests here. 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, conflicts among co-owners, and real estate cases. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989.

Andrew is joined by Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience handling business and real estate cases in state and federal courts. The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone assigned to your matter knows the file, and there is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court or otherwise unavailable. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and they look for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

Real estate contract enforcement is a proven strength. In a recent matter, after a 5-day bench trial in the Broward County Circuit Court, the court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract, meaning the court ordered the deal to be carried out rather than simply awarding money. That kind of result depends on careful preparation of the contract language, the course of dealing between the parties, and the timing of the filing, which are the same habits the firm brings to every real estate dispute. A meaningful share of the firm’s work also comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients have Florida property problems and Florida lawyers who do not handle business litigation.

Types of Real Estate Disputes We Litigate for Lantana Owners and Investors

• Purchase and Sale Contract Disputes: Failed closings, buyers or sellers who walk away, disputes over deposits, and claims that a party defaulted. Remedies can include damages, rescission, or an order compelling the sale to go forward.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree on what to do with shared property, a Florida court can divide it or order it sold and the proceeds split. These cases arise among former business partners, siblings who inherited a home, unmarried couples, and investors who want out.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: Competing ownership claims, stale or defective conveyances, and recorded instruments that cast doubt on who owns a parcel. A quiet title action asks the court to determine ownership and remove the cloud.
• Commercial Lease Disputes: Default, abandonment, personal guaranties, and disagreements about maintenance, use, and renewal in retail and office space along Lantana’s commercial corridors.
• Landlord and Tenant Matters: Nonpayment, lease violations, and terminations governed by Florida’s residential landlord-tenant statute, where the form and timing of the notice often decide the case.
• Property Owned Through a Business Entity: Disputes where real estate is held by an LLC or corporation and the owners are deadlocked, one owner is diverting money, or a member wants out.
• Family and Inherited Property: Siblings, parents, children, and in-laws who share title and disagree about occupancy, sale, buyouts, or who bears the carrying costs.
• Emergency Property Protection: Requests for temporary and permanent injunctions to stop a sale, transfer, or encumbrance, or to preserve property and company assets while the case is pending.

What to Do When a Property Dispute Is Already Underway

Start by collecting the documents that define the dispute: the signed contract and every amendment, the deed, closing statements, the lease, any operating or shareholder agreement for an entity that owns the property, and the correspondence, including texts and emails, that show what each side said and did. In real estate cases the paper almost always controls, and the history of the parties’ dealings fills the gaps. Do not rely on memory when a record exists, and do not delete anything.

Deadlines deserve attention early. A written contract claim in Florida generally carries a five-year limitations period, while an oral or implied contract claim carries four years. A claim for rescission has four years, and a fraud claim has four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of 12 years. An action seeking specific performance carries a one-year period, which surprises many owners who assume they have as long as they would on an ordinary breach claim. Negligence claims against a professional, such as a surveyor or an inspector, can run as little as two years from when the problem was or should have been discovered. When a closing falls apart, the specific performance clock is the one most often missed.

If your concern is that someone is about to sell, transfer, or borrow against the property, or is draining company funds tied to it, speak to a lawyer before the asset moves. A court can issue injunctive relief to preserve the status quo, but only after a proper request, and the sooner it is made the more there is left to protect. Avoid confronting the other side with accusations in writing, signing anything that describes the dispute, or accepting payments that might be characterized as settling the claim without understanding the consequences.

On the landlord side, notice mechanics decide cases. For unpaid rent, the landlord’s written demand starts a three-day period that excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed legal holidays. For other violations that can be cured, the notice must give the tenant seven days to fix the problem, and certain serious violations allow a seven-day termination notice with no chance to cure. A landlord who accepts partial rent after posting a notice must handle it correctly, by giving a receipt that states the amount and the remaining balance, depositing the partial payment into the court registry, or serving a fresh notice reflecting the new figure, but accepting partial rent does not by itself waive the right to terminate. A defective notice can sink an otherwise valid case, so it should be reviewed before anything is filed.

Where the case is heard depends on the size and nature of the claim. Real estate cases in Palm Beach County are generally filed in the circuit court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County, with the main civil courthouse in West Palm Beach. Claims in lower dollar ranges can be heard in county court, and small claims are limited to a smaller amount still. If the property or the defendants are in Broward County, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit applies, which also operates a complex business division for larger commercial disputes. Federal court, in the Southern District of Florida, is available only when federal jurisdiction exists, such as when parties are from different states and the amount in controversy is large enough. Because venue, court level, and local procedure all affect cost and speed, the first filing decision matters.

Partition, Quiet Title, and Entity Disputes: How Florida Courts Resolve Them

Partition is a creature of statute, and every partition action in Florida is heard in equity. The complaint has to describe the land, name the owners and where they live, and state what share each holds. Once the court enters a judgment of partition, it appoints three commissioners to decide whether the property can fairly be divided in kind. If they report that division would prejudice the owners, the court can order the property sold at public auction, with the proceeds shared in proportion to each owner’s interest. When the court allows a sale on credit for good cause, at least one-third of the price must be paid down unless everyone consents to different terms.

Inherited property carries an additional layer. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, and covers property held as tenants in common where there is no binding agreement on partition, at least one cotenant took title from a relative, and certain further conditions are met, such as twenty percent or more of the interests being held by relatives. For heirs property, the court cannot simply order a sale. It must first determine whether partition in kind would prejudice the owners as a group, and other cotenants are generally given a chance to buy out the party seeking the sale. These rules materially change strategy for a family that inherited a Lantana home and cannot agree on its future.

A quiet title action is how an owner asks the court to determine who holds title and to cancel a conveyance or other recorded instrument that clouds it. It can be filed in any county where part of the land lies, and the plaintiff is generally expected to trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise. Where the claim is based on an allegedly fraudulent attempted conveyance, Florida law provides for summary procedure and directs the court to move the case up on its calendar. Related possession-based claims have their own periods: an action to recover real property generally requires that the plaintiff or a predecessor held possession within seven years before filing, and adverse possession requires seven years of continuous possession under a claim of title, with additional recording and tax-return requirements depending on whether the claim rests on color of title.

When the property is held by a company, the dispute is often really a business divorce. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a member or manager can seek judicial dissolution on grounds that include deadlock that cannot be broken and is causing or threatening irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control, or the impracticability of carrying on the business under the operating agreement. The court may appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. If the operating agreement already contains a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court finds deadlock, that provision generally governs instead. Corporations follow a parallel track: a shareholder can petition for dissolution, and the corporation or other shareholders can elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value, with a 60-day window to agree on price and terms before the court steps in. Those elections are irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify them, which makes the decision to elect a strategic one.

Common Questions About Real Estate Litigation in Lantana

What does a real estate litigation attorney actually do?

A real estate litigator reviews the contracts, deeds, leases, and entity documents behind a dispute, identifies the claims and defenses available, picks the court and procedure, and then handles the pleadings, discovery, motions, mediation, and trial. In practice that includes seeking emergency orders when property is at risk, taking depositions about what the parties agreed to, and negotiating resolutions that avoid a trial when a fair one is available.

How long do I have to sue over a breached real estate contract in Florida?

For a contract founded on a written instrument, the limitations period is five years. An oral or implied contract claim has four years. A claim for specific performance, which asks the court to force the deal to close, carries a one-year period. Because these differ, it matters which remedy you are seeking before the clock is calculated.

Can a court order a seller to complete a sale?

Yes. Because every parcel of real property is treated as unique, Florida courts can order specific performance of a purchase contract when the buyer was ready, willing, and able to close and the seller refuses. The firm obtained that kind of result for a client after a bench trial in a commercial real estate case in Broward County.

My co-owner will not sell and I cannot afford to keep paying. What are my options?

Florida law allows a co-owner to ask the court for partition. The court may divide the property if that can be done fairly or, if not, order it sold and split the proceeds. Negotiated buyouts, and in some cases contribution claims for taxes, insurance, and maintenance you have covered, are often part of the discussion as well.

What is a quiet title action and when is it needed?

It is a lawsuit asking the court to declare who owns a property and to cancel any conveyance or recorded instrument that clouds title. It is used for competing claims of ownership, defective deeds, and fraudulent transfers. Plaintiffs typically must show title going back at least seven years.

Can I stop my business partner from selling the building our company owns?

Potentially. If the partner is acting without authority or in breach of a fiduciary duty, a court can issue a temporary injunction preserving the property while the case proceeds, and in an entity dissolution case it can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing. Speed matters, since an injunction cannot undo a sale that has already closed to a good-faith buyer.

If my family inherited a home together, can one sibling force a sale?

Not automatically. For heirs property, Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act gives the other owners protections, including notice, a valuation process, and an opportunity to buy out the one seeking partition, and the court may not order a sale unless it concludes that dividing the property in kind would prejudice the owners as a group.

How does a landlord properly terminate a residential tenancy for unpaid rent?

The landlord delivers a written demand for payment or possession. If rent remains unpaid three days after delivery, not counting Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed legal holidays, the landlord may terminate the tenancy and file for possession. Accepting partial rent does not waive the right to proceed, but it must be handled through a receipt, a deposit into the court registry, or a new notice.

Will my case be heard in Palm Beach County or Broward County?

That depends on where the property is located, where the defendants reside, and what the contract says about venue. Palm Beach County cases go through the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit and Broward County cases through the Seventeenth. Quiet title and partition actions are generally filed where the land is. Large commercial disputes in Broward may be assigned to a complex business division.

I live in New York or New Jersey. Do I have to come to Florida for every hearing?

No. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own property or business interests in South Florida, handles the local court appearances, and keeps out of state clients informed at each stage. Many matters can be managed through scheduled conference calls and remote proceedings where permitted.

Is every property dispute headed for trial?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, especially when the documents are clear and both sides want certainty. The firm’s attorneys are experienced in alternative dispute resolution and recommend the path most likely to reach the client’s goal without cost that outweighs the value at stake.

Serving Real Estate Litigation Clients Across Lantana and South Florida

Our work for Lantana owners extends well beyond the town itself. From Lantana we regularly serve clients in neighboring Lake Worth Beach, Hypoluxo, Manalapan, Palm Springs, and Greenacres, and in the coastal and inland communities of Boynton Beach, Ocean Ridge, Gulf Stream, and Delray Beach. Further up Palm Beach County, we represent owners and investors in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and Riviera Beach, as well as in Boca Raton, Highland Beach, and Lake Clarke Shores.

Across the county line in Broward County, the firm handles disputes in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, and Hollywood, where property, partnership, and contract conflicts often involve the same parties and the same transactions as those on the Palm Beach County side. Clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own condominiums, rental property, or shares of commercial real estate in these communities rely on us to manage the Florida side of their disputes from start to finish.

Speak With a Lantana Real Estate Litigation Lawyer About Your Dispute

Real estate disputes reward early, informed decisions. If you are in conflict with a co-owner, buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or business partner over a property in or around Lantana, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your documents, explain which claims and deadlines apply, and recommend whether to negotiate, mediate, or file. Call to speak with a Lantana real estate litigation lawyer about your situation and schedule a consultation.