Palm Beach County Real Estate Litigation Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents property owners, investors, landlords, business partners, and families whose real estate disputes have landed in Palm Beach County, handling purchase and sale conflicts, partition actions, title fights, lease disputes, and emergency requests to freeze a property before it is sold or encumbered. As a Palm Beach County real estate litigation attorney practice, the firm serves clients in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and throughout the county, as well as neighboring Broward County and out-of-state owners with South Florida holdings.

Real estate cases in this market rarely involve a single issue. A failed closing may sit on top of a partnership breakup. A co-owned parcel may be tied up in an inheritance fight. A cloud on title may only surface when a buyer’s lender asks questions. Each of these has its own clock, its own court procedure, and its own remedies, and picking the wrong one early can cost a client the property or the right to sue at all.

One of the firm’s recent results shows how this work plays out. After a five-day bench trial, a Broward County circuit judge 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 completed rather than leaving the client with a damages check. That remedy is available in Florida, but it comes with a short filing window that catches many owners off guard.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Palm Beach County Property Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a South Florida business and real estate litigation firm that represents business owners, investors, and families in Palm Beach County and Broward County. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, and holds degrees from Emory University (1986) and the University of Miami School of Law (1989). His practice has centered on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which matters in real estate litigation because so many property fights are really ownership fights in disguise.

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. That federal experience is useful in a county where the Southern District of Florida sits in West Palm Beach and where diversity cases involving out-of-state owners can end up there.

The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone assigned to a matter knows the file and can answer a client’s question without a handoff. A strict 24 hour return call policy applies when attorneys are in court. Clients who live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut are kept informed at each stage while the firm handles the local appearances. Many matters also arrive by referral from other attorneys, and the firm keeps referring counsel updated throughout. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as trial, and they look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget instead of stretching a case out.

Real Estate Disputes the Firm Litigates in Palm Beach County

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: A buyer who will not close, a seller who walks away for a better offer, or a financing or inspection dispute can all lead to litigation over deposits, damages, or an order compelling the sale. The wording of the contract and the parties’ conduct leading up to the closing date usually decide the case.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree on what to do with a property, Florida’s partition statutes let a court divide the land or order it sold and split the proceeds. These cases involve former business partners, siblings who inherited a home, unmarried couples, and investors who want out.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: Competing deeds, a forged or defective conveyance, or an old claim that clouds ownership can be cleared through a quiet title action. The firm also helps clients who need to separate themselves from title to a property.
• Commercial Lease and Landlord-Tenant Conflicts: Disputes range from unpaid rent and early termination to disagreements over a lease’s operating terms. Florida’s residential landlord-tenant statute imposes specific notice requirements, and defective notices can derail an eviction.
• Co-Owner and Partner Disputes Over Property: When a company’s main asset is real estate, a fight between members or shareholders becomes a property case. Claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and judicial dissolution often run alongside the real estate claims.
• Injunctions Against Sale or Transfer: When an owner threatens to sell, encumber, or strip value from a property mid-dispute, temporary and permanent injunctions can hold the asset in place while the court decides the case.
• Construction and Development Contract Disputes: Contracts for building, renovation, or development of South Florida property generate claims over payment, delay, and defective work, and these turn on the document and the project history.

Deadlines and First Moves When a Property Dispute Starts

Florida’s limitations periods are short enough that waiting to “see how it plays out” can end a claim. A lawsuit founded on a written contract generally must be filed within five years, while one on an oral or implied contract has four. A suit to rescind a contract has four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer limit of 12 years. The one that surprises people most is specific performance: an action seeking to force a contract to be carried out carries a one-year period. If you are trying to compel a seller to close, that year matters more than any of the longer deadlines.

Gather the paper before anything else. That means the signed contract and every amendment, the deed and title policy, closing statements, escrow and deposit records, emails and texts with the other side, surveys, and any lease or operating agreement tied to the property. In co-ownership fights, collect proof of who paid the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and repairs, because those contributions affect how a court divides value.

Do not sign anything the other side sends you, and do not move out, transfer your interest, or record documents without advice. If you suspect the other party is about to sell, borrow against the property, or move money, tell your lawyer immediately, because emergency injunctive relief only works if it is requested before the harm is done.

Civil cases over the county court limit are filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County, and most significant real estate disputes land there. Circuit civil matters are heard at the main courthouse in West Palm Beach, and the clerk also maintains branch courthouses in Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach, Delray Beach, and Belle Glade. County court handles smaller claims, and small claims stay at the lowest tier. A quiet title complaint may be filed in any county where part of the land sits, so a parcel straddling a county line gives some choice of venue. If the property or the other party is in Broward, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit handles the case, and that circuit has a complex business division for larger commercial disputes. Federal cases involving Palm Beach or Broward properties go to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Partition, Quiet Title, and Adverse Possession in Florida

Partition is a creature of statute, and every partition action is heard in chancery. The complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and where they live, and state what share each holds. After a judgment of partition, the court appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree on them, to determine whether the property can be divided fairly. If they report that division would prejudice the owners, the court can order a public sale to the highest bidder and split 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.

Inherited property gets special treatment. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after its effective date and protects families who hold land as tenants in common after receiving it from relatives. If the court finds the property qualifies, it must follow the Act’s procedure unless all co-owners agree otherwise. Before ordering a partition in kind, the court must be satisfied the commissioners weighed the statutory factors and found that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group. In practice this makes forced sales of family land harder than in an ordinary partition, and it changes strategy on both sides.

Quiet title actions let a court cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title held by someone who is not the rightful owner and remove the cloud. Florida requires the plaintiff to trace title back at least seven years before filing, unless the court orders otherwise. When the dispute stems from an alleged fraudulent conveyance, the statute allows summary procedure and directs the court to move the case up on its calendar, which can shorten the timeline considerably.

Adverse possession is the flip side of title disputes. Without color of title, a claimant must show actual, continued possession for seven years under a claim of title exclusive of any other right, and must file a return with a legal description of the land for the property appraiser. Possession under color of title also requires seven years, and for claims beginning after 1945 the instrument must be recorded with the circuit clerk in the county where the property sits. Separately, Florida bars suits to recover real property unless the plaintiff or a predecessor was in possession within seven years before filing. Owners who ignore a trespasser or an encroaching neighbor for years can lose rights without ever receiving notice.

When the Property Belongs to a Company and the Owners Are Fighting

Much of the real estate litigation in Palm Beach County is really a business divorce. A building, development parcel, or rental portfolio is held in an LLC or corporation, and the owners stop agreeing. The remedy then depends on the entity’s governing documents and Florida’s business entity statutes, not just property law.

For LLCs, a circuit court may dissolve the company on a member’s or manager’s petition on several grounds, including that it is not reasonably practicable to operate under the articles and operating agreement, that controlling members are acting illegally or fraudulently, that assets are being misappropriated or wasted to the company’s injury, or that the owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened or occurring. In a dissolution case, 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 contains a deadlock sale mechanism that is started before the court finds deadlock, that mechanism takes priority over a dissolution order.

For corporations, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the court may issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve assets while the case is pending. Florida’s statute also gives the corporation, or other shareholders, a chance to avoid dissolution by electing to buy out the petitioner at fair value. The corporation must notify other shareholders of that option within 30 days after the case begins. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms, and the election is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to change it. Filing for dissolution does not cancel a shareholder’s right to use a compliant deadlock sale provision in a shareholder agreement.

Palm Beach County Real Estate Litigation FAQs

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

For a contract in writing, the period is five years. For an oral or implied contract it is four years. Those periods were not changed by the 2023 reform that cut the negligence deadline from four years to two. If you want the court to order the sale completed, the specific performance period is only one year, so that claim should be evaluated first.

Can a court force a seller to close on a property?

Yes. Specific performance is a recognized remedy for real estate contracts because land is treated as unique. The firm obtained such a judgment for a client after a five-day bench trial in a commercial case. Courts weigh whether the contract is clear, whether you were ready and able to perform, and whether you sued within the one-year window.

What does a partition action actually do?

It asks the court to end a co-ownership by dividing the property physically or, when that is not practical, ordering a sale and splitting the money by ownership share. Commissioners appointed by the court assess whether division can be done without prejudice to the owners.

Can one co-owner force a sale of a property we inherited?

Not as easily as in a standard partition. If the property qualifies as heirs property under Florida’s uniform act, the court must follow a protective procedure, and it cannot order a partition in kind unless the commissioners found that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group. Qualification depends on how title was acquired and the family relationships among owners.

What is a quiet title action and when do I need one?

It is a lawsuit that asks a court to determine who owns land and to cancel a competing deed or claim that clouds your title. It is common after forged or defective conveyances, old competing claims, or when a sale or refinance stalls because of an unresolved ownership issue. You generally must trace title for at least seven years.

Do I have to file in the county where the property is located?

For a quiet title action, the complaint may be filed in any county where any part of the land is situated. Other real estate claims have their own venue rules, and where the defendants live or where the contract was to be performed can also matter.

My business partner and I own a building through an LLC and cannot agree. Can I just sue to sell the building?

Not directly. Because the LLC owns the property, your rights run through the company. Options include enforcing a buyout or deadlock provision in the operating agreement, seeking judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, or asking for a receiver or custodian. Which route fits depends on your agreement and the other owner’s conduct.

Can I get a court order to stop a co-owner from selling or mortgaging the property while the case is pending?

Often, yes. Temporary injunctions can hold the status quo, and the firm regularly seeks early and emergency relief. The request needs to be supported by evidence that the property or its value is at real risk, so timing and documentation matter.

How long does real estate litigation take in Palm Beach County?

It varies with the claims, the number of parties, and whether the case settles or goes to trial. Palm Beach’s circuit court assigns civil cases to tracks under a differentiated case management order, which shapes the schedule. Mediation often happens well before trial, and many disputes resolve there.

I live in New York. Do I have to come to Florida for hearings?

Generally not for routine matters. The firm handles local court appearances and keeps out-of-state clients updated. Some events, such as a trial, may call for your testimony, but the firm works to limit unnecessary travel.

If my landlord accepted partial rent, did they lose the right to evict me?

Under Florida’s residential landlord-tenant statute, accepting partial rent does not waive the right to terminate or sue, but the landlord must follow one of several steps, such as giving a dated receipt stating the balance due, placing the partial payment in the court registry when filing, or serving a fresh three-day notice for the reduced amount. Skipping those steps can undermine the eviction case.

Serving Real Estate Litigation Clients Across Palm Beach County and Beyond

The firm represents clients throughout Palm Beach County, from West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens in the north through Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth Beach, Boynton Beach, and Delray Beach, down to Boca Raton, and west toward Belle Glade. Owners of coastal condominiums, commercial plazas, development land, and family homes all bring different kinds of disputes, and the court that hears them depends on the amount in controversy and the claims asserted.

The firm also serves clients in neighboring Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, where the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit and its complex business division handle larger commercial disputes, and throughout South Florida generally. Many clients live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut and hold property or business interests here, and the firm manages their Florida cases without requiring them to relocate for the litigation.

Talk to a Palm Beach County Real Estate Litigation Lawyer About Your Dispute

If a closing has collapsed, a co-owner is blocking a sale, someone is clouding your title, or a partner is treating a company property as their own, the sooner a Palm Beach County real estate litigation lawyer reviews your documents, the more options you will have. Some of those options expire in as little as a year. Call the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to talk through your situation, and the team will tell you plainly what the contract, the title record, and Florida law allow.