Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Whether Significant or merely Formerly Significant, Others have no significance under the law, and there is no legal relationship to "dissolve." You two are co-owners. One can force the other to sell, at an auction, which will fetch a low price. One usually points this fact out to the other, and sensible people then negotiate a deal that does not include selling at auction.

Yes. From a legal standpoint is it nearly identical to if you were investment partners in the property and one partner wanted to disolve the partnership. If the parties cannot agree on how to disolve the partnership, either one can file a dissolution of partnership action, but in the case of real estate it is called a partition action. Partition is really a misnomer these days because the property is almost never actually divided. Unless the parties agree on a buy-out or similar settlment the property is partitioned by sale, meaning the court orders a sale and the proceeds are partitioned according to the rights of the parties in the property (not always 50/50 depending on whether one person put more into it).

Further, I'd add that partitions don't ordinarily involve auction sales, like foreclosures. More often than not, the property is sold by ordinary commercial means, such as using an agent and MLS. Even so, with so many recently-purchased properties having little or no net equity, a sale will not cover the commission, loan pay-off and costs of the partition suit.