Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

In general a co owner of real estate can force a sale through partition. This is an expensive process, in that you need to engage an attorney and file a partion action. I would try to resolve the issue with the other owner or owners first, and perhaps even use the threat of a partiton action to urge the property be sold. The other alternative is to sell your interest to them or buy them out. Either may be a better solution that a partition action. Perhaps a letter from counsel outlining their alternatives woudl be helpful.

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Yes

You can indeed sue for partition. This is a right held by all co-owners of real property, and even personal property can be partitioned. The only common exception is that the right to partition is subject to waiver. Such a waiver can be express, e.g., when the co-owners buy the property, they sign an agreement that neither will seek to partition the property for X years; or it can be an implied waiver, e.g., where the parties buy a vacant parcel and begin an elaborate development project that isn't yet complete, and partitioning short of completing the project would result in big losses for one or the other.

In general, a partition lawsuit is the appropriate way for an unhappy co-owner to handle the unwinding of the co-ownership. Filing the suit is often sufficient to cause the defendant to get much more interested in working something out, and many partition actions are settled out of court before judgment. Typically, one party buys the other out, or they reach an agreement to list and sell the property without court orders. Sometimes, the co-owners agree to sell the property privately (without court order), but also agree to have an arbitration as to how the net proceeds of sale should be divided.

If there is equity in your property, you may very well end up better off filing suit that giving up your equity. The cost of suit may well exceed $10,000, however, by the time it goes to final judgment. Nevertheless, I'd say 80% or more of partition suits that are filed are settled well before they make their way through the full court process.