Lauderhill Real Estate Attorney

Lauderhill property disputes tend to start quietly: a co-owner stops answering calls, a closing date passes with no explanation, or a deed turns up that nobody in the family signed. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm that handles these situations for property owners, investors, and families in Lauderhill, throughout Broward County, and across Palm Beach County and the rest of South Florida.

If you are searching for a Lauderhill real estate attorney, the first question is usually what kind of problem you actually have, because the remedies differ sharply. A buyer trying to force a seller to close needs a different tool than a sibling trying to exit a jointly inherited house, and a landlord with a nonpaying tenant is on a different clock than an owner with a cloud on title. Sorting out which of those paths fits your facts is where the work begins.

Real estate cases in this area often involve several overlapping relationships at once: former business partners who bought property together, relatives who inherited it, investors who live in another state, and tenants or buyers on the other side of a contract. Our work covers both the transactional side and the courtroom side, and we look at each file with an eye toward the result that serves your goals and your budget.

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 South Florida’s difficult business and real estate disputes, serving clients in Lauderhill, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Firm founder Andrew M. Schwartz was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989 and has spent 37 years in litigation, with a career built around contract disputes, partner and co-owner conflicts, and real estate litigation. He holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University and a law degree from the University of Miami. 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.

The firm practices as a true legal team, meaning everyone working on your matter knows the file and can answer when you call. We keep a strict 24 hour return call policy when we are in court, and we schedule conference calls at times that work for everyone involved. Much of our practice comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients own property in Florida.

Results matter more than adjectives. After a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the firm obtained a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. For anyone whose deal fell apart at the closing table, that outcome shows what it takes to compel a seller to perform rather than simply chase damages. Our attorneys are also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and we pursue the path most likely to resolve the dispute efficiently rather than prolonging a case for its own sake.

Real Estate Problems We Handle for Lauderhill Property Owners

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: A seller who backs out, a buyer who cannot close, or a contract that was never performed can lead to claims for damages or a lawsuit asking the court to order the sale to go through. Which remedy fits depends heavily on the contract language and how quickly you act.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree on what to do with shared property, any of them can ask the court to divide it or sell it and split the proceeds. We see these among former business partners, siblings who inherited a home, unmarried couples, and investors who want out.
• Heirs Property Cases: Property passed down among relatives without a clear agreement on its future receives special treatment under Florida’s partition statutes, with extra protections before a court will order a forced sale.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: Competing ownership claims, a questionable deed, or a recorded document that clouds your title can be addressed through a quiet title action, which asks the court to declare who actually owns the property.
• Landlord and Tenant Matters: Nonpayment, lease violations, and terminations follow strict statutory notice rules. A mistake in the notice can derail an eviction before it starts.
• Commercial Lease and Loan Disputes: Leases, purchase agreements, and loan documents often turn on exact wording and the history of how the parties dealt with each other.
• Money and Missing Funds Tied to Property: Diverted rents, unpaid distributions from a shared investment, and commingled accounts can support claims for an accounting and recovery of funds.
• Injunctions: When property or assets are at risk of being moved, encumbered, or damaged while a case is pending, temporary and permanent injunctions can preserve the status quo.

What to Do When a Real Estate Dispute Surfaces in Lauderhill

Start by pulling together every document that touches the property: the contract, the deed, any title commitment or policy, the lease, loan paperwork, and the emails and texts that show how the deal was actually handled. Disputes over real estate are won and lost on paper, and the version of events that is documented almost always carries more weight than the one that is remembered. Do not sign anything new, accept a payment you have not had reviewed, or agree to a “quick fix” with the other side until someone has read the paperwork.

Then look at the clock. Florida sets different filing deadlines for different claims. A lawsuit on a written contract generally must be brought within five years, while one based on an oral or implied agreement has four. A claim to rescind a contract has four years, and a fraud claim runs four years from discovery, with an outer limit of twelve. The one that catches people off guard is specific performance, which carries a one-year period. If your goal is to force a seller to close rather than collect money, waiting even a few months to see how things play out can cost you the remedy. Negligence-based claims arising after the 2023 changes carry a two-year deadline.

Landlords face their own short fuses. For unpaid rent, a landlord must deliver a written demand and then wait three days, not counting Saturdays, Sundays, or court-observed holidays, before terminating. For other lease violations that can be corrected, the notice gives the tenant seven days to cure. For violations that cannot be cured, such as intentional destruction of property, the landlord can deliver a notice giving seven days to vacate. Accepting partial rent after posting a notice creates traps, so the landlord has to handle it by issuing a receipt, depositing the partial payment with the court when filing, or serving a corrected notice. Accepting partial rent does not, by itself, waive the right to terminate.

Where a case is filed depends on the amount and the type of claim. Lauderhill sits in Broward County, which falls under the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Disputes above $50,000 belong in circuit court, while smaller claims between the small claims ceiling and that amount go to county court. Large business and real estate disputes, including some entity dissolution cases, may qualify for the Seventeenth Circuit’s complex business division, which has its own filing procedure. Federal court in Fort Lauderdale is available only when federal jurisdiction exists. If a co-owner or property sits in Palm Beach County, that case may belong in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit instead, and we handle matters in both.

A common mistake is delay disguised as patience: waiting for a relative to “come around,” letting a tenant stay another month, or hoping a seller will reconsider. Another is moving out or giving up possession without understanding how that affects your claim. Talk to a Lauderhill real estate lawyer early, while all the options are still on the table.

Partition, Heirs Property, and Quiet Title in Florida

Partition and quiet title are the two court tools that most often untangle co-ownership problems, and they work very differently.

Partition actions are heard in chancery under Chapter 64. The complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and where they live, and state what share each holds. If the court enters a judgment of partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree. If the commissioners conclude the property cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order a sale at public auction and split the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s interest. The court can allow a sale on credit for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid at the outset unless everyone consents otherwise.

Family property gets extra protection. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after July 1, 2020. Property qualifies as heirs property when it is held in a tenancy in common with no binding agreement among the cotenants about partition, at least one cotenant got title from a relative, and further conditions are met, such as twenty percent or more of the interests being held by relatives. If the property qualifies, the court must follow the Act’s procedures unless every cotenant agrees otherwise. Before ordering a division in kind, the court has to be satisfied that the commissioners weighed the statutory factors and found that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group. This framework gives relatives a meaningful chance to keep inherited property instead of watching it sold at auction.

Quiet title is the answer when the question is who owns the property rather than how to split it. Under Chapter 65, a person claiming legal or equitable title can ask the court to determine title and clear competing claims, including cancelling a conveyance or other document that casts a cloud on ownership. The action can be filed in any county where part of the land sits. Plaintiffs generally must trace title back at least seven years before filing, unless the court orders otherwise. Where the dispute stems from an allegedly fraudulent conveyance, the statute provides for summary procedure and calendar priority.

Adverse possession sometimes sits underneath these disputes. Florida bars a suit to recover real property unless the plaintiff or a predecessor was in possession within seven years of filing, and a claimant relying on adverse possession without color of title must show seven years of actual, continuous possession under a claim of title exclusive of others, and must file a return with a full legal description. Claims under color of title require that the instrument be recorded in the county where the land lies.

When Property Is Held Through a Business Entity

Many South Florida properties are owned through an LLC or corporation, which means a real estate dispute can also be a business divorce. If members or shareholders are fighting over a building, the remedies may come from the entity statutes rather than the partition statutes.

Under Florida’s LLC Act, a manager or member can ask the circuit court to dissolve the company on specific grounds, including that the company’s activities are conducted unlawfully, that it is not reasonably practicable to carry on activities consistent with the articles and operating agreement, that controlling persons have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently, that assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or that managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened or occurring. Once a petition shows sufficient merit, the court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. If the operating agreement has a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds, that provision generally controls instead.

For corporations, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or other shareholders can elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value to avoid dissolution. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order directing the purchase, and the election cannot be revoked unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. During these proceedings, a court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver, and take steps to preserve corporate assets. Reading the operating or shareholder agreement first is essential, because a buy-sell or deadlock clause may give you a faster route than a lawsuit.

Lauderhill Real Estate Attorney FAQs

What does a real estate attorney do in a dispute, as opposed to a closing?

A transactional lawyer helps structure and close a deal. A real estate litigator steps in when something has gone wrong: a failed closing, a contested title, a co-owner who will not cooperate, or a tenant who will not leave. Our firm handles both, so the lawyer reviewing your contract understands how it would hold up in court.

Can I force a seller to complete a sale in Broward County?

Possibly. A court can order specific performance of a real estate contract in appropriate cases, and the firm has obtained such a judgment after a bench trial. The claim has a one-year filing period, so timing matters a great deal.

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

For a written contract, the period is five years. For oral or implied agreements, it is four. Rescission carries four years, fraud runs four years from discovery with a twelve-year cap, and specific performance has only one year. Which deadline applies depends on the claim you are actually bringing.

What is a partition action and who can file one?

Any co-owner of real property can ask a Florida court to divide it or order it sold and the proceeds shared. It is commonly used by former business partners, heirs, unmarried couples, and investors who no longer want to hold property together.

Can a court really force the sale of a house I inherited with my siblings?

It can, but Florida’s heirs property statute adds protections when the property qualifies. The court must follow the Act’s procedures, and before dividing the land in kind it must be satisfied that the statutory factors were considered. Qualifying family co-owners get more opportunity to keep the property than in an ordinary partition.

What is the difference between partition and quiet title?

Partition assumes everyone has a valid ownership share and asks how to divide or sell the property. Quiet title asks who owns it in the first place, and is used to resolve competing claims or remove a document that clouds your title.

My business partner and I own a building through an LLC and cannot agree. Is partition available?

Usually not directly, because the LLC owns the building rather than the individual members. Your remedies more likely come from the operating agreement and the LLC statute, which allows judicial dissolution on grounds like deadlock, misappropriation, or unlawful conduct, and allows a court to order a buyout or appoint a receiver.

Does accepting a partial rent payment ruin my eviction?

Not automatically. Accepting partial rent does not waive the right to terminate, but a landlord must follow the statute: give a receipt showing the amount and the remaining balance, put the payment in the court registry when filing, or serve a new notice reflecting the reduced amount. Skipping these steps can complicate the case.

I live in New York or New Jersey and own property in Broward County. Do I have to come to Florida for hearings?

Generally no. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handle the local court appearances, and keep you updated at each stage so you do not need to travel for every proceeding.

Will my real estate case be heard in state or federal court?

Most real estate disputes in Lauderhill are filed in the state courts of Broward County, with the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit handling larger claims and the county court handling smaller ones. Federal court is an option only where federal jurisdiction exists.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer for a dispute with a co-owner who is also family?

Often yes, particularly because family disputes tend to harden over time. A lawyer can review the deed and any agreement, explain the realistic outcomes, and look for a negotiated buyout or mediated resolution that avoids a forced sale, while protecting your financial interest if talks fail.

Serving Real Estate Clients Across Lauderhill and South Florida

We represent property owners and investors in Lauderhill and the surrounding Broward County communities, including Lauderdale Lakes, Plantation, Sunrise, Tamarac, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Fort Lauderdale, Margate, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Davie. Our work extends north into Palm Beach County, where we serve clients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, and West Palm Beach, and we appear in the courts of both counties as each case requires.

Whether the dispute involves a single-family home passed down through a family, a rental building owned by former partners, or a commercial parcel under contract, the same principle applies: the right remedy depends on who holds title, how the deal was documented, and how fast you move. We also work with clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold property or business interests in the area, and with attorneys who refer their clients to us for Florida real estate litigation.

Talk to a Lauderhill Real Estate Lawyer About Your Property Dispute

If a closing has collapsed, a co-owner has dug in, or a title question is holding up your property, a conversation with a Lauderhill real estate attorney can show you which remedies are still available and how much time you have left. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team has litigated business and real estate disputes across South Florida for decades, and we return calls within 24 hours. Call us to schedule a consultation and talk through your situation.