Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

co0owner property sale

I own 25%of an 80 acre parcel of agricultural property along with my aunt 50% and my brother 25%. For several years my aunt and brother bullied my off the property by renting it to local cattle ranchers. Finally they both moved away, one out of state and the other hundreds of miles away. They agreed to let me use the property. I have had livestock on it for several years now and have become partial to the n/e corner of the property. My aunt and brother are out of money and want to sell the property. I don't want to sell. I would be perfectly happy with 20 acres on the n/e corner. They are being very difficult about this. I don't know if its jealousy or just plain meanness. The planning dept says that subdividing 20 acre parcel off would be no problem. Should i have the property surveyed and a plan drawn up at the risk of spending money and being shot down, or should i just sit tight and let them make the first move? What recourse do I have? Please help


Asked on 5/19/08, 3:10 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Mitchell Roth MW Roth, Professional Law Corporation

Re: co0owner property sale

I answered this already.

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Answered on 5/20/08, 2:56 pm
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: co0owner property sale

I believe this is a re-write of a previous question. To repeat, my suggestion is to bring a partition lawsuit against the co-owners, asking for partition by division rather than by sale. This may result in one or both co-owners offering to be bought out (rather than defend the suit), and if you can afford to do so, buy them both out (better than just buying out one), and when that happens you can dismiss the suit. If they still don't wanna be bought out, go through with the suit and get the judge to quarter the property and give you the NE corner. You may also be entitled to "owelty" for rents they collected and didn't share, etc., but eligibility for reimbursement in a partition case works both ways, and if they paid a lot of property taxes, etc. and you didn't, you might have to reimburse them.

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Answered on 5/20/08, 6:07 pm


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