Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Selling part of my property

You may need to do a partition.

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Re: Selling part of my property

Partition? I don't think so! Partition is a type of lawsuit in which a co-owner of land sues to end the co-ownership, either by having the court order a physical subdivision of the land between the co-owners, or, more frequently in modern times, by ordering the sale and division of the net proceeds between the former feuding co-owners.

What you need is a minor subdivision, or as it would be called in this situation, a two-way lot split. This process is governed by the Subdivision Map Act, which is a rather detailed and lengthy set of much-amended laws in California's Government Code, starting with section 66411.

I notice that there are provisions in both the Revenue & Taxation Code and the Business & Professions Code regarding the appraisal and assessment of subdivided lands, but I have not studied them and I prefer not to make an uneducated guess on how your property taxes would be affected by a subdivision.

Although you might need to retain a lawyer to assist you in doing a split of your property, especially if the proposed split would require a deviation from the general plan or raises neighbor concerns so that hearings before a planning commission were necessary, I think your starting point would be to make two contacts: First, with a surveyor with lots of experience with lot splits in Los Gatos. You'll need a survey and professionally-prepared maps, and the surveyor can tell you a lot about the process, costs and timing. The other useful contact would be a title company. Any lot split requires a title report, to see whose interests are affected - for example, if you have a mortgage, the lender may not want its collateral divided in two without a re-write of the loan or a pay-down or pay-off.

R-1:8 zoning allows a minimum lot size of 8,000 square feet, with minimum dimensions of 60 to 80 front feet (60 interior, 80 corner lot), and minimum depth of 90 feet. There are additional requirements. Check with the Planning Department or go on line, there is a lot of information.

If I've used the word "lot" a lot in this answer, no pun is intended.