Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: 2 of 4 owners of 30 acres want to sell

You need to initiate a partition lawsuit to force the sale.

The brother in law only owns a part of what his wife owned.

Re: 2 of 4 owners of 30 acres want to sell

I generally agree with the previous answers, but maybe I can add a little.

First, as you seem to realize, there is no way one or more co-owners can force the other co-owners to buy them out, or to sell to them (absent a written agreement to do so).

Next, all co-owners have a shared right to possess the entire co-owned property. In effect, they are involuntary roommates. Therefore, no co-owner who is out of possession has a right to receive rent from a co-owner in possession. The two of you who don't live there are technically legally free to move in any time you want. Of course, as a practical matter, it is improper to do anything that is likely to result in a riot! Again, the rights of the co-owners can be waived or modified by contract.

If a co-owner in possession receives rent or other income from a third party (a non-owner), the net profit belongs to all the co-owners and must be shared upon request. This too can be modified by contract.

Partition can be done in two ways. Traditional partition, and that's how it got its name, is to physically subdivide the property without selling it, and this may be the answer for your situation. The other answers didn't discuss this possibility. Subject to county parcel size laws, you may be able to get a court judgment partitioning the property into two parcels, one with the house and five acres (for example) and the other 25 acres with no buildings - assuming this created equal value. The two that want the house would then have it, and the other two that want cash would have a parcel they could sell. There is a related concept called "owelty" which is simply a cash payment made from one co-owner to the other co-owner(s) to even up the value when the split can't be done in a way that's fair dollar-wise.

Finally, I would add that while partition suits can be slow, cantankerous and expensive, it often happens that merely filing the suit makes the other party come to the bargaining table, and you end up settling out of court.

Re: 2 of 4 owners of 30 acres want to sell

Under most circumstances, and depending on how title is held, each owner usually has the equal right to use and enjoy the property. Also, depending on how title is held, if one owner wants to sell, the owner would file a partition action (or seek to be bought out). The partition action may seek a division of the property, if reasonable, or the sale of the property with a distribution of proceeds. The one sister who added her husband on title probably just transferred her own particular interest.

We have handled partition actions in the past. Let us know if we can be of service.

Re: 2 of 4 owners of 30 acres want to sell

Unless there is a written agreement between all co-owners (i.e. persons who hold title) that restrict every owner's otherwise absolute statutory right to partition, then any one of the persons on title can file suit to force a sale of the property. It is most unlikely such an agreement exists. In this litigator's experience, such agreements are quite rare.

This means that any person holding title can file suit to force a sale, and there would likely be no defense to the sale. The next step is to have the court appoint a referee to coordinate the sale. A sale is done per court order; then the proceeds are deposited into court.

The court then distributes according to the interests held by the owners, less debits (for such things as maintenance, upkeep, payment of the mortgage, interest, taxes, insurance, etc.) and plus credits (for rental monies not paid, monies owed for loans made by one owner to the property that were not reimbursed by the others, etc.).

As a procedural matter, the way this works is that a referee is appointed by the court, sometimes with the parties' input. The referee eventually sells the property and places the proceeds in trust. The parties then litigate what portion of the proceeds go to each co-owner of the property.

In the simplest case, a property owned half/half by two partners, each of whom have contributed equally to the property's upkeep, maintenance, etc, the proceeds from the sale (less expenses and referee's fee) would be divided equally between the partners.

There can be many pitfalls in a partition lawsuit; and litigators not familiar with how to properly complete a partition lawsuit will generally take a lot longer than typical to do one. Partition lawsuits are generally quite expensive.

Call or email if you have questions.