West Palm Beach Real Estate Litigation Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents property owners, investors, landlords, tenants, and co-owners in real estate disputes across West Palm Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County, and it also serves clients in Broward County and from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold property in South Florida. A West Palm Beach real estate litigation attorney is usually called in when a deal that looked settled falls apart, when co-owners stop agreeing about a property, or when someone else’s name appears on a title that should be clean.

Real estate cases in this market tend to be driven by documents and deadlines. A failed closing turns on the wording of the purchase contract and on who performed when. A partition case turns on how title is held and who the owners are. A quiet title case turns on how far back the chain of title can be traced. The statutes of limitations that govern these claims differ from one another, and one of them, for specific performance, is only a single year. Waiting to see how things develop can cost a client the claim.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Real Estate Disputes in West Palm Beach

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for owners, investors, and families throughout Palm Beach County, Broward County, and South Florida. Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989. His career has centered on complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which matters in real estate because so many property fights are really ownership fights between people who once agreed.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone on a matter knows the file, and it keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court. Its lawyers are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as trial work, and they look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake.

The firm’s results include a recent commercial real estate matter in Broward County. After a 5-day bench trial, the Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That outcome reflects the kind of detailed, document-driven preparation these cases demand. The firm also takes referrals from other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients have Florida property disputes, and it handles local court appearances so out of state clients do not have to travel for every hearing.

Real Estate Disputes We Litigate in Palm Beach County

• Failed Closings and Purchase Contract Disputes: Buyers who want the property they contracted for, and sellers who want to enforce a deposit or recover damages, often end up in court over missed deadlines, financing contingencies, or disputes about condition. Specific performance forces the sale to go through, but that action carries a one-year limitations period.
• Partition Actions: Co-owners who cannot agree can ask the court to divide the property or order it sold and split the proceeds. We represent former business partners, siblings who inherited property, unmarried couples, and investors who want out of a shared holding.
• Heirs Property Cases: When land passes through a family and is held by relatives as tenants in common without a binding agreement, a special statutory framework applies. It gives cotenants protections that ordinary partition does not, including limits on forced sales.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: Owners who need to clear competing claims, remove a cloud on title, or separate themselves from title to a property bring these actions. The court looks at the chain of title, and the plaintiff generally must trace it back at least seven years.
• Adverse Possession and Boundary Claims: Florida requires seven years of continuous possession, with additional requirements such as a recorded instrument when the claim rests on color of title. These cases come up between neighbors and with inherited or neglected parcels.
• Landlord and Tenant Disputes: Commercial and residential landlords and tenants come to us over nonpayment, lease termination, security deposits, and breaches of lease terms, including cases where the notice itself was defective.
• Money and Fiduciary Claims Tied to Property: Real estate held through an LLC or partnership often generates claims for diverted funds, unpaid distributions, or breach of fiduciary duty, sometimes with a request for emergency relief to stop assets from being moved.
• Construction and Commercial Lease Disputes: Contract litigation over construction agreements and commercial leases depends on the precise wording of the documents and the history of the parties’ dealings.

What to Do Right Now When a Property Dispute Is Developing

Start by gathering the paper. For a failed closing, that means the signed contract, every addendum, the deposit records, and all correspondence about extensions or contingencies. For a title or ownership dispute, collect the deed, any mortgage, the title insurance policy, tax records, and anything that shows who has paid for and used the property. For a lease dispute, preserve every notice sent or received along with proof of how and when it was delivered. A West Palm Beach real estate litigation lawyer will build the case from these documents, and gaps in them are expensive to fill later.

Then identify which clock is running. A claim on a written contract generally must be filed within five years, 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, with an outer limit of 12 years. Specific performance, which is the remedy that forces a sale to close, has a one-year period. Actions to recover real property are barred unless the claimant or a predecessor was in possession within seven years before filing. Because the period differs depending on how the claim is framed, the date to calendar is the earliest one that could apply.

Where the case is filed depends on the amount and the relief sought. Claims above the county court threshold, and equitable actions such as partition and quiet title, belong in circuit court. In Palm Beach County that is the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in West Palm Beach, and the federal Southern District of Florida also holds court there when a case belongs in federal court. Partition and quiet title actions are equitable proceedings, and a quiet title complaint may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. If the property or the parties are in Broward County, the case is heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which also has a complex business division for larger business and construction disputes.

Avoid the common mistakes. Do not stop paying a mortgage, rent, or shared carrying costs because you are in a dispute without understanding the consequences. Do not accept partial payments from a tenant after serving a nonpayment notice without following the statute’s receipt or registry requirements. Do not sign a new agreement with a co-owner or counterparty before a lawyer has read it, and do not record anything against the title on your own. If a partner or manager is moving or spending money tied to the property, raise it immediately, because emergency injunctive relief is only useful before the assets are gone.

How Partition and Quiet Title Cases Actually Work

All partition actions in Florida are equitable proceedings. The complaint must describe the land, name each owner and where they live, and state what share each holds. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree on them. If the commissioners report that the land cannot be divided without prejudicing the owners, the court may order it sold at public auction and divide the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s interest. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase money must be paid down unless every party consents otherwise.

Heirs property follows a different path. If the court finds that property is heirs property, meaning tenants in common without a binding agreement, at least one cotenant who acquired title from a relative, and a qualifying condition such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests, the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act governs unless all cotenants agree otherwise in a record. Under that statute, a partition in kind is not entered unless the commissioners considered the statutory factors and found that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group. These rules protect families from fast, low-value forced sales, and they change strategy for both sides.

Quiet title is aimed at a different problem: someone holds, or claims to hold, an interest that clouds your ownership. The statute lets the court cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title held by a person who is not the rightful owner. Plaintiffs must deraign title for at least seven years before filing unless the court orders otherwise. Where the claim rests on an allegedly fraudulent conveyance, the statute allows summary procedure and directs the court to advance the case on its calendar.

When Co-Owned Property Is Tied to a Company

Many West Palm Beach property disputes are really business divorces. When real estate is held by an LLC or corporation, the remedy may lie in company law rather than partition. A circuit court can dissolve an LLC on a member’s petition when owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when it is no longer reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement. In those proceedings the court may appoint a receiver or custodian after 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 the deadlock grounds, that provision generally controls.

For corporations, a shareholder petition for dissolution can lead the corporation or the other shareholders to elect to purchase the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order on those terms. The corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days of the filing that they can avoid dissolution by electing to buy. During the case the court can issue injunctions and take steps to preserve assets, which matters when the corporation’s main asset is real property.

Questions About Real Estate Litigation in West Palm Beach

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

For a claim founded on a written contract, Florida generally allows five years. An oral or implied contract has four years. If what you want is an order forcing the sale to close, specific performance carries a one-year period, so that claim moves much faster than a damages claim.

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

Yes, in appropriate cases. Specific performance is an equitable remedy, and the firm obtained a final judgment granting it for a commercial real estate contract after a bench trial in Broward County. Courts look at whether the buyer was ready, willing, and able to perform and whether the contract terms were clear.

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

A partition action asks the court to divide jointly owned property or, when division is impractical, to order a sale and split the proceeds. Any co-owner may generally bring one, but heirs property is subject to extra protections that can limit forced sales.

What counts as heirs property in Florida?

It is real property held by tenants in common with no binding agreement among all cotenants about partition, where at least one cotenant got title from a relative, and where a further condition applies, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. If the property qualifies, the heirs property statute governs the partition.

What does a quiet title action accomplish?

It asks the court to determine who owns the land and to cancel conveyances or other evidence of title held by someone who is not the rightful owner. A successful judgment clears the cloud so the property can be sold, financed, or transferred without the competing claim.

How long must someone possess land before claiming it by adverse possession?

Seven years of continuous possession, with other requirements. Without color of title, the claimant must have held the property under a claim of title exclusive of any other right and must file a return with a full legal description. With color of title, the instrument must have been recorded in the county where the property sits.

How much notice does a landlord have to give before ending a tenancy for unpaid rent?

For nonpayment, the landlord must deliver a written demand for payment or possession, and the tenant has three days, not counting Saturdays, Sundays, or court-observed legal holidays, before the landlord may terminate. Accepting partial rent does not waive the right to terminate, but the landlord must follow the receipt, registry, or new-notice requirements.

My business partner and I co-own a building and we are deadlocked. Do I have to sue?

Not necessarily. Check the operating or shareholder agreement first, since many contain buyout or deadlock sale provisions. Negotiation, mediation, or a structured buyout often resolves these disputes faster than a dissolution case, though court remedies are available when talks fail.

Can I stop a co-owner or manager from selling or draining a property while my case is pending?

Possibly. Courts can issue temporary injunctions, and in dissolution proceedings can appoint a receiver or custodian, to preserve assets while a dispute is resolved. These applications are time-sensitive and depend on documenting the threat early.

Where would my real estate case be heard in Palm Beach County?

Larger disputes and equitable actions like partition and quiet title are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit’s circuit civil division in West Palm Beach. Smaller damages claims, up to the county court limit, are heard in county civil court, and small claims are heard in their own division. Cases with federal jurisdiction can go to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach.

I live in New York and own property in Palm Beach County. Do I have to attend every hearing?

The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and handles the local court appearances, so you can protect your interests without traveling for every proceeding. It keeps out of state clients informed at each stage.

Is mediation worth trying before filing suit?

Often, yes. Many property and ownership disputes settle through negotiation or mediation at a fraction of the cost and time of a trial. The firm’s attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration and will say plainly when a case is better resolved that way.

Serving Real Estate Litigation Clients Across West Palm Beach and South Florida

The firm represents property owners and investors throughout West Palm Beach, including the downtown core near the courthouse, the Northwood and Flamingo Park neighborhoods, and the communities along the waterfront. Its work extends across Palm Beach County to Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton, and north to Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, North Palm Beach, and Riviera Beach.

The firm also serves clients in neighboring Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, and Hollywood, and throughout South Florida. Clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own investment property, a share of a building, or a stake in a South Florida company are a regular part of the firm’s practice, as are referrals from attorneys who do not handle real estate litigation in Florida.

Talk With a West Palm Beach Real Estate Litigation Lawyer

If a closing has collapsed, a co-owner is blocking a decision, or a competing claim has clouded your title, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review the documents and tell you which claims are available and how soon you need to act. A West Palm Beach real estate litigation lawyer who knows the limitations periods and the local courts can help you decide whether the right path is negotiation, mediation, or a lawsuit.

Call the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to schedule a consultation. If we are in court when you call, we will return your call within 24 hours.