Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Not much other than a share of the proceeds. As a matter of public policy, the legal system has determined that if any one joint owner of property wants to sell, it will be sold. If the owners cannot agree to sell it cooperatively, then the person who wants to sell files what is called a "partition action." It has that name because in ancient times the courts would literally divide the property, giving part to each owner. Under modern zoning, land use and subdivision law, you can't have the courts doing that anymore; so they partition by selling the property and dividing the proceeds. The sale is conducted by the sheriff, just like a foreclosure. As you can imagine, that brings a much lower price than a sale with proper marketing through a real estate agent. So in over 27 years of real estate law practice, I have never seen a partition case reach the point of the sheriff's sale rather than being settled. Particularly since the parties do not have to agree on the distribution - such as if one put a lot more money into the property than the other. They can sell with an agent and reserve to the court the decision on distribution. Bottom line, though, if one wants to sell, they do have a legal process to force it to happen.