Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Yes, indeed. Any one of multiple co-owners of property can bring an action in court, i.e. sue, the other owners. This is called a "partition" action, because in earlier times it was much more commonplace for the court to divide the property "physically" by ordering it to be subdivided. Since so many of us live in cities instead of on large farms, and due to laws restricting subdivision of real estate, it is much more common nowadays for courts to order the property sold and the net money proceeds divided among the former owners.

The law governing partition cases is a part of the California Code of Civil Procedure, found at sections 872.010 through 874.240, about 20 pages of fine print in my edition.

The law requires that the distribution of the net proceeds of sale (after paying liens, taxes, costs of sale, etc.) be distributed fairly, and the court will consider not only the percentages of ownership (legal and equitable), but disproportionate expenditures made by any owner(s) for taxes, mortgage payments, insurance, and necessary repairs. Costs incurred for improvements are not usually considered unless the owners agreed on the improvements.

Many partition cases are filed but settled before trial by agreement of the co-owners to a voluntary sale or, perhaps, to one group of co-owners buying out the other(s). Also, about the only defense that's available to the defendant(s) in a well-pled partition suit is "waiver." If the defendant(s) can show that the co-owners have agreed to stick together, e.g., the owners co-purchased the property for a business purpose and have been investing heavily to accomplish this, the court may deny or delay the partition.

I have a fair amount of experience with partition cases, including representing parties in litigation and with out-of-court settlements of property-ownership disputes. If you'd like a further (no charge or obligation) analysis, please contact me directly with more details,