Parkland Real Estate Attorney

Most real estate disputes end the same way: someone needs a closing to happen, a co-owner to be bought out, a cloud lifted from a title, or a tenant removed under a notice that actually holds up in court. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm that works toward those outcomes for owners, investors, and families in Parkland and across Broward County and Palm Beach County. As a Parkland real estate attorney team, we handle purchase and sale disputes, partition actions, title problems, and landlord and tenant conflicts, for local owners and for clients who live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut and hold property in South Florida.

Real estate disagreements in a community like Parkland rarely involve a single dollar figure. They involve a house or a parcel that carries years of equity, a closing date that has already slipped, or a co-owner who will not sign. Florida law gives owners real tools for these situations, but each tool has its own deadline, its own court procedure, and its own way of going wrong if the first filing is sloppy.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team serves Parkland, Coral Springs, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and the rest of Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Because the firm practices as a true legal team, everyone working on a matter knows the file, and a strict 24 hour return call policy applies when an attorney is in court and cannot answer right away.

Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989, and has built his career around contract disputes and conflicts between co-owners. 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 matters in real estate work, where a dispute can start in a Broward or Palm Beach circuit court and sometimes belongs in federal court in the Southern District of Florida.

The firm’s results include a commercial real estate case tried to the bench over five days in Broward County Circuit Court. After that trial, 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 enforced rather than simply awarding money. Specific performance is one of the hardest remedies to win, and it is often the only remedy that makes a buyer whole when a property cannot be replaced.

Many of our matters arrive as referrals from other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have a Florida property problem. We handle the local court appearances, keep out of state clients informed, and are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, so the path we recommend is the one that fits your goals and budget.

Real Estate Disputes a Parkland Attorney Handles

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: Buyers and sellers go to court when a closing collapses over financing, inspection findings, title objections, or a seller who decides to walk away. Depending on who breached, the remedy may be damages, return of a deposit, or a court order forcing the sale to close.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners cannot agree to keep, sell, or divide a property, Florida’s partition statutes let any owner ask the court to divide the land or order it sold. These cases often involve former business partners, siblings who inherited a home, unmarried couples, and investors who want out.
• Heirs Property: A separate set of partition rules applies when co-owners hold as tenants in common and some acquired title from a relative, as often happens when a family home passes down. These rules add protections that can steer a case away from a forced auction.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: A quiet title action asks the court to settle competing ownership claims or cancel a recorded document that clouds title. These are common after botched transfers, disputed deeds, and attempted conveyances that should never have been recorded.
• Adverse Possession Claims: Florida allows ownership to be claimed through long, open, exclusive possession, but only if strict statutory requirements are met. Neighbors with fence-line or boundary disagreements sometimes find themselves on either side of one of these claims.
• Landlord and Tenant Disputes: Commercial and residential landlords and tenants dispute unpaid rent, lease breaches, and improper termination notices. Florida’s landlord-tenant statute sets precise notice rules, and a defective notice can sink an eviction.
• Co-Owned Property Between Business Partners: When a company’s real estate is the main asset, a business divorce and a property dispute become the same case, with questions of valuation, buyout, and dissolution tied to the land.
• Emergency Injunctions Over Property: When an owner is about to sell, encumber, or damage property while a dispute is pending, the firm seeks temporary and permanent injunctions to hold things in place until the court decides.

What to Do Right Now When a Property Dispute Threatens Your Interest

Start by collecting the documents that define your rights: the contract or lease, the deed, any recorded instruments, closing statements, correspondence with the other side, and any notices you have sent or received. In real estate cases the written record usually decides the outcome, so keep texts and emails, and do not sign anything or agree to anything in writing until a lawyer has read it.

Then check the clock, because Florida’s limitation periods differ sharply by claim type. A legal action founded on a written contract generally has a five-year period, while one based on an oral or implied agreement has four years. A claim to rescind a contract has four years, and fraud runs four years from discovery, capped at 12 years overall. The deadline that surprises people most is for specific performance: an action seeking to force a buyer or seller to complete a contract has just one year. If you want the deal itself rather than money damages, waiting to see how things develop can forfeit the remedy.

For tenancies, follow the statutory notice sequence exactly. A landlord facing unpaid rent delivers a written demand for payment or possession, and if the default continues for three days after delivery, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and court-observed legal holidays, the landlord may terminate. For a non-rent violation that can be fixed, the notice must give the tenant seven days to correct it, and for violations that cannot be cured, the landlord may give a seven-day notice to vacate. Accepting partial rent does not waive the landlord’s right to terminate, but the landlord must then handle the partial payment correctly: give a dated receipt stating the balance due, deposit it in the court registry when filing, or post a new three-day notice for the reduced amount. Mistakes in these steps are the most common reason evictions get dismissed and restarted.

Know where the case will be filed. Parkland sits in Broward County, which is the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and a suit can be filed in any county where any part of the land lies, which matters for property that straddles county lines or sits in neighboring Palm Beach County, the Fifteenth Circuit. Circuit courts hear claims above $50,000, county civil courts hear claims from $8,000.01 to $50,000, and small claims cover amounts up to $8,000. Because those thresholds are adjusted periodically, confirm the current limits before filing. Broward also has a complex business division within its circuit court that handles large business and construction litigation and certain entity dissolutions, which can be the right home for a property case tied to a company dispute. Federal claims go to the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

How Partition and Quiet Title Cases Actually Work in Florida

Partition cases are heard in equity. The complaint must describe the land, name every owner and where each lives, and state what share each holds. Once the court enters judgment of partition, it appoints three commissioners to decide whether the property can be divided fairly. If they report that division would prejudice the owners, the court may order the property sold at public auction, with proceeds split in proportion to ownership. The court can allow a sale on credit for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase price must be paid down unless every party agrees otherwise.

The heirs property rules change that picture. If the court finds the property qualifies, because the cotenants hold as tenants in common without a binding agreement on partition, at least one acquired from a relative, and a further condition applies (such as twenty percent or more of the interests being held by relatives), the case proceeds under the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. Partition in kind is not ordered unless the court is satisfied that commissioners weighed the statutory factors and found that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group. For a family trying to keep a home that passed down through generations, whether those rules apply can decide the case.

Quiet title is the other tool owners reach for most. The statute gives the court authority to determine title where parties claim the same land and to cancel a conveyance or recorded document that clouds the owner’s title. Plaintiffs must trace title back at least seven years before filing unless the court orders otherwise. Where the claim rests on a fraudulent attempted conveyance, the statute provides for summary procedure and calendar priority, which can speed a case that would otherwise sit for months.

Adverse possession is a related but distinct subject. Without color of title, a claimant must show actual, continuous possession for seven years under a claim of title exclusive of any other right, and must file a return with the property appraiser that includes a full legal description. With color of title, the instrument the claim rests on must be recorded in the county where the land sits. Courts read these requirements strictly, and a claimant who skips one usually loses.

When the Co-Owner Is Also a Business Partner

Real estate disputes in South Florida are often business disputes in disguise. If the property is held by an LLC or corporation, the remedy may be dissolution rather than partition. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a court can dissolve a company at a member’s request when it is not reasonably practicable to carry on in line with the operating agreement, when controlling members act illegally or fraudulently, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened. The court may appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member. If the operating agreement already contains a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court finds deadlock, that provision generally controls instead.

For corporations, a shareholder may seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or other shareholders can elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value, which the court will enforce if the parties agree on terms within 60 days. Within 30 days of a dissolution proceeding starting, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they can avoid dissolution by buying the petitioner’s shares. During the case, the court can issue injunctions and appoint a custodian to protect assets. Knowing which path your documents point to, and whether a deadlock sale clause already governs, shapes everything from strategy to settlement.

Parkland Real Estate Questions, Answered

How long do I have to sue over a breach of a real estate purchase contract?

For a written contract, the general period is five years. If you want the court to force the other side to complete the sale, the specific performance period is one year. Because the deadlines differ by remedy, you should not assume the longer period applies to the claim you actually want.

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

Yes, specific performance is available when a buyer proves a valid contract, readiness to perform, and that money alone would not make them whole, which is often the case with real property. Courts examine these claims closely, and they are decided on the contract language and the parties’ conduct.

What is a partition action, and can one owner force a sale?

A partition action asks a Florida court to divide co-owned property or order it sold and the proceeds split. Any co-owner can file, but the court first considers whether the land can be divided fairly, and the heirs property rules may limit forced sales of inherited property.

What counts as heirs property in Florida?

It is real property held as tenants in common with no binding agreement among all owners about partition, where at least one owner acquired title from a relative and an additional statutory condition is met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. If the court finds the property qualifies, special partition procedures apply unless every owner agrees otherwise in writing.

What does a quiet title action accomplish?

It resolves competing ownership claims and can cancel a recorded document that clouds title, producing a judgment you can rely on when selling or refinancing. The plaintiff must generally trace the chain of title for at least seven years.

How does a landlord properly evict for unpaid rent in Florida?

The landlord delivers a written demand for payment or possession, and if rent remains unpaid for three days after delivery, not counting weekends and court-observed holidays, the landlord may terminate and file for possession. Defects in the notice or mishandling of partial payments are frequent grounds for dismissal.

If a landlord takes partial rent, is the eviction over?

No. Accepting partial rent does not waive the right to terminate or sue, but the landlord must follow one of the statutory approaches: issue a receipt with the balance and date, deposit the partial rent in the court registry upon filing, or serve a new three-day notice for the reduced amount.

Can I get a court order to stop a co-owner from selling or encumbering our property?

Often, yes. A temporary injunction can freeze a sale or mortgage while the dispute is pending if you show a clear right, irreparable harm, and the lack of an adequate legal remedy. Speed matters, because a recorded transaction to a good-faith buyer is far harder to undo.

I live in New York and own a Parkland property with a former partner. Do I have to appear in Florida?

Our firm handles the local court appearances and keeps out of state clients informed, so you generally do not need to travel for every hearing. Some proceedings, such as trial or mediation, may call for your participation, and we coordinate timing and remote options where the court allows them.

Is a real estate dispute worth litigating if the amount is modest?

It depends on the remedy and the cost of the alternative. Claims under $8,000 can go to small claims court, and many disputes settle through mediation or arbitration. Where title, possession, or a unique property is at stake, the value is often greater than any dollar figure suggests.

Do property cases always end in court?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and a well-drafted demand letter or injunction motion can prompt a settlement. The firm pursues the route most likely to meet your goals efficiently, rather than extending a case for its own sake.

Serving Real Estate Clients From Parkland Across South Florida

From Parkland, our attorneys represent property owners across northwest Broward County, including neighboring Coral Springs, Margate, Coconut Creek, and Tamarac, and into Sunrise, Plantation, Davie, Weston, and Pembroke Pines. We also serve clients in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Lauderhill, and Hollywood, which hear disputes at Broward’s regional courthouses. Heading north, we serve Palm Beach County communities including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Wellington, and West Palm Beach. Clients with South Florida property who live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut can also work with us without relocating their case.

Speak With a Parkland Real Estate Lawyer About Your Property Dispute

If a closing has fallen through, a co-owner is blocking a decision, a title is clouded, or a tenant dispute has reached the notice stage, a conversation with a Parkland real estate lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can clarify which claims you have and which deadlines apply. Call to schedule a consultation, and we will review your documents, explain your options, and recommend the most practical path forward.