Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: real estate yucca valley california

Se my answer to the previous post.

Re: real estate yucca valley california

It's not really clear what your proposed role in the transaction would be. Are you one of the two owners? Or, since you ask "Can I sell HIS section only" I'm wondering if you are an agent or broker.

I've read Ms. Deming's answer, and while it is correct it may require a little explanation. Your interests would be as tenants in common, and you each own your specified percentage interest in the entire parcel, every square inch of it. The interests of the two owners are said to be "concurrent." Each owner can occupy and use any and all portions of the entire parcel, and neither of you can sell any particular square feet of the parcel. However (for example), the 41% owner can sell 1%, 15%, or anything up to 41% of the whole thing. The two co-owners are kind of roommates of each other, each with the full run of the place. If the 41% owner sold half of his interest, then there would be three tenants in common, one with 59% and two with 20.5% each. All three would then have to share every square inch of the parcel, east to west and south to north. None can say "Ha ha, I've got 59% so I get the house and the well, you have only 20.5% (or 41%) so you get the barn and the swamp."

The co-owners are free to make a contract between them altering this situation, and this often happens, or one buys out the other. If they cannot agree, the law provides a remedy, which is a lawsuit for partition of the property. Once this was usually done by physical subdivision, but this is increasingly difficult with zoning laws, heavy development of urban parcels which may be small in the first place, and the Subdivision Map Act. Nowadays, most real-property partitions ask for a court-supervised sale and a split of the post-sale NET proceeds between the selling former co-owners, with adjustments as necessary to make the result "fair" in the judge's opinion.

The problem we're running into lately is that so many parcels are "under water" and a sale will not produce enough cash to pay off the liens and still leave anything to distribute, to say nothing of give the plaintiff a return on his or her legal expenses and efforts.

The bottom line answer to your question is that you can sell what you (or your client) have, but when what you have is a percentage in tenancy-in-common property, what you have is not very attractive to buyers.

Re: real estate yucca valley california

There is no way to sell a portion of a legal parcel without first sub-dividing the parcel, and that takes a lot of money and public hearings before approval. Currently, each of the owners owns a percentage of the WHOLE parcel. Also, there is very little market for a 59% or a 41% ownership of a property with a stranger, so it will be very difficult to find a buyer.